China Real Estate: Build it and They Will Come or Bubble Waiting to Burst?

Bloomberg News today reports on 50% vacancy in Beijing commercial real estate. This is up from a 22% vacancy rate in the third quarter last year. From the article: [INDENT][INDENT]Empty buildings are sprouting across China as companies with access to some of the $1.4 trillion in new loans last year build skyscrapers. Former Morgan Stanley chief Asia economist Andy Xie and hedge fund manager James Chanos say the country?s property market is in a bubble. ?There?s a monumental property bubble and fixed-asset investment bubble that China has underway right now,? Chanos said in a Jan. 25 Bloomberg Television interview. ?And deflating that gently will be difficult at best.? A glut of factories in China is ?wreaking far-reaching damage on the global economy,? stoking trade tensions and raising the risk of bad loans, the European Union Chamber of Commerce in China said in November. [/INDENT][/INDENT]In January, Douglas French wrote about a brand new city in Inner Mongolia that is nearly em...