'Ghost towns': Evergrande crisis shines a light on China's millions of empty homes

Evergrande's unraveling is still commanding global attention, but its troubles are part of a much bigger problem. For weeks, the ailing Chinese real estate conglomerate has made headlines as investors wait to see what will happen to its enormous mountain of debt. As the slow-moving crisis unfolds, analysts are pointing to a deeper underlying issue: China's property market is cooling off after years of oversupply.
The warning signs have been flashing for some time. Prior to Evergrande's meltdown, tens of millions of apartments were thought to be sitting empty across the country. In recent years, the problem has only gotten worse.

Mark Williams, chief Asia economist at Capital Economics, estimates that China still has about 30 million unsold properties, which could house 80 million people. That's nearly the entire population of Germany.
On top of that, about 100 million properties have likely been bought but not occupied, which could accommodate roughly 260 million people, according to Capital Economics estimates. Such projects have attracted scrutiny for years, and even been dubbed China's "ghost towns."

Read more