Bankers Gone Wild! - #Ireland 's Ghost Homes!

Ghost Estates of Ireland: Symbols of an Economic Collapse

 

 

 

 

 

Article by Steph,

Built with visions of suburban prosperity in more optimistic times, the empty shells of former dream homes dot the countryside among piles of construction rubble and fallen-down fences. Economic highs and lows have led to abandonments of entire villages all over the world, from China to the Mediterranean, but Ireland is among the nations that was particularly hard-hit.

 

 

Photographer Valérie Anex captures Ireland’s ‘ghost estates’ in a series of striking images that juxtapose a fading hope for sanitized suburbia with the current reality, which is simply that nobody can afford to live in these houses. The National Institute for Regional and Spacial Analysis defines ‘ghost estates’ as developments of ten houses or more in which fifty percent or less of the homes are occupied or completed.

 

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There is little difference between between somber banking types and the wild party girls on videos. Both are the same too when the party's over and their respective worlds come crashing down. 

You think we are being funny, but actually we are quite serious. The facts speak for themselves...

Investors' Insights

June 3, 2014

Girls or Bankers?

 

#CHINA 'S REALTY #BUBBLE TO BURST

Bust looming over China property
 market?

New home prices
 in China have 
soared, more than quadrupling in
 Beijing and Shanghai since 
2003, and more
 than doubling in the country as a 
whole. — Reuters pic - 

BEIJING, June 1 — After years of boom that have seen prices rocket, the prospect of a bust is looming over China’s vast property sector, with authorities hoping to avoid a meltdown that could send shock waves through the world’s second-biggest economy.Housing was doled out by the state when Communist-style collectivism dominated economic management. But in the past two decades that has given way to market-oriented principles as China’s economy has opened.

New home prices have soared, more than quadrupling in Beijing and Shanghai since 2003, and more than doubling in the country as a whole, according to a report by Jeremy Stevens, Beijing-based Asia economist at South Africa’s Standard Bank.

The increases have been a key source of wealth for China’s rising middle classes, and a major driver of the economy.

Now some — including individuals who have made fortunes — foresee imminent disaster.

“I think Chinese property is the Titanic about to crash into the iceberg right in front of it,” Pan Shiyi, billionaire chairman of commercial developer SOHO China, said at a forum, China Business News reported last week.

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 Insights: 


How big is the real estate bubble in China? On good authority we understand that the number of empty homes exceeds 53 million. Clearly we are nearing a collapse, but the big problem will be the ripple effect on the the global economy that could be crippling for years to come.

You knew this  was going to happen sooner or later. Shorting the banking sector is starting to look attractive and it bolsters the prospects for precious metals including Gold!


Investors' Insights
June 2, 2012

Why is the boom ending?   

Investor

China ALERT: Super Rich "KASH-lNG" Out

The Richest Man in Asia is Selling Everything in China

By Simon Black

Here’s a guy you want to bet on– Li Ka-Shing.

Li is reportedly the richest person in Asia with a net worth well in excess of $30 billion, much of which he made being a shrewd property investor.

Li Ka-Shing was investing in mainland China back in the early 90s, way back before it became the trendy thing to do. Now, Li wants out of China. All of it.

Since August of last year, he’s dumped billions of dollars worth of his Chinese holdings. The latest is the $928 million sale of the Pacific Place shopping center in Beijing– this deal was inked just days ago. 

Once the deal concludes, Li will no longer have any major property investments in mainland China.

This isn’t a person who became wealthy by being flippant and scared. So what does he see that nobody

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Getting to know you

Deep, Dark, Cold in China's Ghost Cities

This Chinese City’s Property Market Is Even Chillier Than Its -22-Degree Weather

 

Wall  Street Journal - China Real Time

Here in the frigid, wind-battered northeast Chinese port city of Yingkou, real-estate developer Zhang Wang is hoping that weather might be a selling point for potential apartment buyers.

Temperatures in the region plunge to -30 degrees Celsius (-22 Fahrenheit) in the winter. But in Yingkou, they bottom out at a mere -20 degrees, he says. Maybe he can get some buyers looking for a better climate.

Cities like Yingkou in China’s northeast rust belt were among the earliest cities in the country to be overbuilt. In 2005, now-Premier Li Keqiang was party secretary of Liaoning province, where Yingkou is located. He pushed a massive restructuring project to wean the region from its reliance on steel, coal and mining. 

As Mr. Li moved up the government ranks, developers counted on his endorsement as an implicit government backing of the region’s future development, developers and analysts say. Yingkou, along with other cities, sold vast tracts of lands to developers to build apartments for the workers who – they hoped –  would populate the new factories, malls and industrial parks to come.

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Alibaba Cash Crunch Hits China Banks - Vampires Blamed???

China Banks Drained by Funds Called Vampires Seek Rules


By Bloomberg News 

It has been labeled a “blood-sucking vampire” by a prominent commentator on state-run television. Executives at China’s largest banks have called for regulators to curb its rapid expansion.

The focus of this ire is Internet financing, specifically Yu’E Bao, the fund pioneered nine months ago by Alibaba Group Holding Ltd.’s online-payment affiliate Alipay. Its ease of use, involving a few taps on a smartphone, has drawn deposits from 81 million customers, more than the population of Germany, as they chase returns higher than China’s banks can offer. The total exceeded 500 billion yuan ($80 billion) as of Feb. 28, according to the official Xinhua news agency, double the amount reported by Alipay in mid-January.

At least six other technology firms, including Baidu Inc. (BIDU) and Tencent Holding Ltd. (700), have embraced Internet financing with similar products offering returns as high as 10 percent and threatening to drain more cash from China’s banking system. Bank executives, unable to stop the outflow of their cheapest source of funding because interest rates on comparable deposits are fixed by the government at 0.35 percent, are calling for more regulation, saying that lack of oversight and risks related to account security, yield volatility and liquidity management threaten China’s financial stability.

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More Signs China's Real Estate Slumps

Real Estate Meltdown Closes In on Shanghai

BY Eric Johnson

BEIJING (TheStreet) -- A property market meltdown is spreading in cities within 100 miles of downtown Shanghai.

The latest regional cities affected by tumbling demand for new homes and commercial space are Ningbo and neighboring Fenghua, where local officials Monday formed an emergency task force following the failure of a real estate developer.

Media reports say Xing Run Real Estate Investment abandoned an unfinished complex of French-style villas in Fenghua while defaulting on about $566 million in debt, including $388 million owed to at least 10 and perhaps as many as 19 banks, including state-run China Construction Bank, one of China's largest.

The collapse is likely to ripple through the local economy, as privately held Xing Run and its chief executive Shen Caixing have close ties to construction companies in the Ningbo area, which is south of Shanghai, as well as Zhejiang University in another nearby city, Hangzhou.

The property market in Hangzhou started crumbling last month, prompting developers to slash prices on a glut of unsold apartments. Police had to be called after existing homeowners angrily stormed one developer's office, demanding compensation to make up for the sudden fall in their home values.

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