China land development plummets

From the FT:

The amount of land used for new property developments in China fell more than 25 per cent last year, reflecting sluggish demand that could exacerbate local governments’ debt burdens.

Citing data from the Ministry of Land and Resources, the official Xinhua news agency, reported that 151,000 hectares had been allocated for new real estate, down more than a quarter from 2013.

…While urban home prices in China have fallen for nine months, the full impact of the correction has yet to hit the broader economy and will probably cause a lot more pain when it does. Property investment increased more than 10 per cent last year to Rmb9.5tn ($1.5tn), according to the National Bureau of Statistics, compared with an 8 per cent fall in sales as measured by gross floor area.

Property sales in major cities in the week before the Chinese new year holiday, which officially began on February 18, fell by about 20 per cent from the corresponding week a year earlier.

This is the steel story of 2015.