China

The phenomenon has seen average housing prices in the country triple from 2005 to 2009, possibly driven by both government policies and Chinese cultural attitudes.

High price-to-income and price-to-rent ratios for property and the high number of unoccupied residential and commercial units have been cited as evidence of a bubble

China's relatively conservative mortgage lending standards and trends of increasing urbanization and rising incomes as proof that property prices are justified.

 Chinese property developers are now experiencing their own credit crunch due to Chinese government funding restrictions and fire sales are expected which will reduce prices rapidly[2] and individual property loans are also drying up [3]

 Significant numbers of vacant or under-performing commercial and residential properties[4][5][6] and the continued construction of property despite these facts[7][8], including an estimated 64 million vacant apartments.[9]

 High price-to-income ratios for real estate, such as in Beijing where the ratio is 27 to 1 years , five times the international average[10](27 to 1 is based on a double income household so 54 to 1 for a single income household of roughly 6,500USD/yr)

 High price-to-rent ratios for real estate, such as in Beijing where the ratio is 500:1 months compared to the global ratio of 300:1 months[11] Homes are readily available in the Minneapolis area for 100 times the monthly rent

 A weak secondary market for Chinese homes, with the ratio of secondary to primary residential property transactions at 0.26 for the first half of 2009 (four times as many new home purchases as secondary sales). Comparably, Hong Kong had a ratio of 7.25, and the U.S. had a ratio of 13.45.[12]

 Chinese companies in the chemical, steel, textile and shoe industries opening real estate divisions, expecting higher returns than in their core businesses[13]

 Residential housing investment as a share of China's GDP has tripled from 2% in 2000 to 6% in...