{"id":1601002,"date":"2022-08-11T11:25:34","date_gmt":"2022-08-11T15:25:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1601002"},"modified":"2022-08-11T11:25:47","modified_gmt":"2022-08-11T15:25:47","slug":"china-property-firm-apologises-for-vacancy-rate-report-after-public-debate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/china-property-firm-apologises-for-vacancy-rate-report-after-public-debate\/","title":{"rendered":"China property firm apologises for vacancy rate report after public debate"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">22<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fchina-property-firm-apologises-for-vacancy-rate-report-after-public-debate%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1601002&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>By Liangping Gao and Clare Jim<\/p>\n<p>BEIJING\/HONG KONG (Reuters) -A Chinese property think tank owned by KE Holdings apologised on Thursday for sparking a \u201cheated public discussion\u201d with its report on rising housing vacancy rates in China, and said its assessment may not be sufficiently accurate. <\/p>\n<p>The apology comes at a time when policymakers are urging banks to extend loans to property firms and local governments are relaxing downpayment rules for home purchases as sales and confidence sag amid weak macroeconomic conditions. <\/p>\n<p>A growing debt crisis in the real estate sector, which accounts for a quarter of the world\u2019s second-largest economy, has also raised risks of social instability.<\/p>\n<p>Beike Research Institute published a report on Aug. 5 after conducting a survey warning of oversupply due to high rates of unoccupied homes in major Chinese cities.  <\/p>\n<p>The report said the average housing vacancy rate in 28 major cities is higher than in the United States, Canada, France, Australia and Britain, with a 7% vacancy rate in tier-one cities including Beijing, and 12% in tier-two cities.<\/p>\n<p>But in a statement published on its WeChat account on Thursday, it said the methodology used had led to inaccurate data.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe survey takes whether a home has been unoccupied for three straight months as an indicator, which does not fully reflect the real situation,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n<p>Among the problems highlighted, it said there were deviations in survey responses, the samples and procedures were not standardised enough, coverage was not as comprehensive and some data was collected incorrectly.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe will cross-check the accuracy of the data with the housing, water and electricity departments,\u201d it said.     <\/p>\n<p>The report could worsen sentiment in the distressed property market where some cash-strapped developers have defaulted on loans and bond repayments and homebuyers in several cities have refused to pay their mortgages due to unfinished homes.<\/p>\n<p>Beike declined to provide further comment when contacted by Reuters. The report is no longer available on its official WeChat account.<\/p>\n<p>China does not provide official data on home vacancy rates, and the findings by researchers vary.<\/p>\n<p>Southwestern University of Finance and Economics in Chengdu, Sichuan, said in a 2018 report the home vacancy rate in urban areas across the country in 2017 was 21.4%, up from 18.4% in 2011. It cited data from its China Household Finance Survey and the National Bureau of Statistics. <\/p>\n<p>Investment bank China International Capital Corporation Limited in a report estimated a vacancy rate of 12.1% in urban areas in 2017.<\/p>\n<p>It gave the rate for cities, excluding villages, of 9.7%, which was \u201csignificantly lower\u201d than mature markets such as the United States and Japan.<\/p>\n<p>Zhang Dawei, chief analyst at property agency Centaline, said the vacancy rate should be published by the government.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt is impossible for a private institution to get real data, such data needs to be released with caution, which easily causes market panic,\u201d Zhang said.<\/p>\n<p>A Weibo post by financial news outlet Yicai on Tuesday that cited the report showed 56,000 \u201clikes\u201d and 6,017 comments in one day.    <\/p>\n<p>Others suggested more had to be done to bring prices down.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe real estate market is in deformity, resulting in ridiculously high prices and vacant homes in many places,\u201d commented one netizen.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf prices don\u2019t come down, it\u2019ll be hard to raise people\u2019s feelings of harmony,\u201d another lamented. <\/p>\n<p>In another thread with the hashtag \u201capology from Beike on high vacancy rate\u201d, which attracted over 38 million clicks by mid-afternoon, one netizen said: \u201c(Beike\uff09got a warning from relevant authorities\u201d.<\/p>\n<p> (Reporting by Liangping Gao and Ryan Woo in Beijing and Clare Jim in Hong Kong; Editing by Jacqueline Wong)<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.oann.com\/?attachment_id=2736528\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/tagreuters.com2022binary_LYNXMPEI7A04H-VIEWIMAGE.jpg\" alt=\"tagreuters.com2022binary_LYNXMPEI7A04H-VIEWIMAGE\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Liangping Gao and Clare Jim BEIJING\/HONG KONG (Reuters) -A Chinese property think tank owned by KE Holdings apologised on Thursday for sparking a \u201cheated public discussion\u201d with its report<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":66,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1601002","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1601002","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/66"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1601002"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1601002\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1601002"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1601002"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1601002"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}