China’s property foreclosures up by a third so far in 2023

A general view of residential buildings in Beijing, China Sept 6, 2023. REUTERS/Tingshu Wang/File photo

BEIJING  – The number of property foreclosures in China rose 32.3 percent in the first nine months of the year, according to a private survey, as home owners grappled with debt amid a property market slump and shaky economic recovery.

Property foreclosures in January-September rose to 584,000 units from 441,000 the same period last year, according to a survey by China Index Academy on Saturday, one of the country’s largest independent real estate research firms.

Residential foreclosures increased to 284,000 from 206,000 in the first three quarters in 2022, while the transaction ratio of such properties being bought at auctions fell 4.8 percentage points to 25.7 percent.

Cities with high numbers of foreclosures were concentrated in the southwestern province of Sichuan, with an increase of 27,585 from a year earlier to more than 70,000.

China’s economy grew faster than expected in the third quarter, improving the chances of the government meeting its 2023 growth target of around 5 percent.

But economists say the crisis-hit property sector, in the throes of a liquidity crisis that market participants fear could spread throughout the financial sector both at home and abroad, remains a drag and continues to cloud the outlook.