国之大者 matter(s) of national importance; Real estate; Biden-Xi

Has the central government’s resolve in keeping the pressure on the real estate industry been surprising? Are there signs the pressure is leading to so many problems that the government may need to loosen up a bit?

I discussed the real estate market in the recent Sinocism podcast with Chen Long of Plenum. You can listen to it here.

This excerpt from our conversation on the current regulatory cycle is relevant to some of today’s news, highlighted in item #3:

I tend to believe that this time is not that much different from previous episodes. I mean, I know there's the argument there, saying, "Xi really wants to reduce the share of the real estate in the economy, and wants to curb housing prices." But I don't think this is new. We have this episode, like you just mentioned, multiple times in the last 15 years. Basically every three years, we have a property cycle, from trough to peak to trough. Right? And the Chinese government, in both central and local, that will change policies very, ver…