China’s richest men give their thoughts on property market; Wahaha’s Zong: “No construction of new property should be allowed. Housing bubbles have formed and it would be terrible to build more houses”

October 30, 2013 Leave a comment

China’s richest men give their thoughts on property market

Kao Hang and Staff Reporter

2013-10-29

Zong Qinghou, chairman of China’s largest beverage producer Wahaha Group, has called for a halt in housing construction, reports the Chinese-language Beijing Times. Zong, attending the second World Zhejiang Entrepreneurs Convention held in Hangzhou in eastern China’s Zhejiang province on Sunday, interrupted a speaker to say that “no construction of new property should be allowed.” The Wahaha chairman — the country’s second richest man — objected to the massive construction taking place across the country under the pretext of urbanization. He said that vacant housing is now evident not only in major cities but also in rural areas, noting: “housing bubbles have formed and it would be terrible to build more houses.”Zong said that real urbanization did not mean scrambling to build more houses, but letting some 260 million migrant workers return to rural areas. He suggested that authorities in Zhejiang should first aim to upgrade businesses through transformation and after the economy is more developed, they should help workers find jobs closer to home.

Meanwhile, Wang Jianlin, chairman of property developer Dalian Wanda Group and currently the richest man in China, said the property market is running out of control and it is mainly attributed to the authorities. He said that regulation and control had been unsuccessful and its direction had been erratic, adding that government regulation was focused on controlling housing price hikes instead of protecting home ownership.

Beijing announced a series of measures on Oct. 23 in a bid to quicken the pace of building low- and medium-priced housing, which insiders claim is in line with Wang’s call for home ownership, the paper said.

Filed under Macro Trends

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