Vancouver housing draws Chinese real estate investors – and more of Today’s China Real Estate Links | March 15, 2013

Here is a list of the day’s latest China real estate news collected from around the web:

• Vancouver housing draws Chinese real estate investors
  

  Vancouver, home to one of the largest populations of Chinese immigrants, is hoping that buyers from China can help reverse a lull in the local real estate market even though prices remain sky-high.

  In February, residential-property sales in the city and its immediate surroundings fell below their 10-year average, according to the Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver. The trade group said 1,797 properties changed hands last month, a 29.4 percent decrease from February 2012.

• House Curb Concerns Sink SouFun in U.S

  Chinese equities fell to a three- month low in New York, as speculation property curbs will be tightened sank SouFun Holdings Ltd. and Suntech Power Holdings Co. tumbled on prospects the government won’t offer a bailout.

  The Bloomberg China-US Equity Index of the most-traded Chinese companies in the U.S. slid 1 percent to 92.09 yesterday, the lowest close since Dec. 4. SouFun, owner of China’s biggest real estate information website, slumped to the lowest level in almost three months, as E-House China Holdings Ltd. slid the most in five weeks. Suntech, a solar-panel maker that announced a forbearance agreement this week for $541 million of debt, sank 24 percent, leading declines on the gauge.

• China widens monitoring of brokers’ murky channel business

  China is stepping up the monitoring of security brokerages’ channel business, which guides client funds into off-balance sheet investments, concerned that it could be a hidden systemic risk, a senior official from the securities watchdog said.

  Ouyang Changqiong told a news conference during the National People’s Congress in Beijing that the common brokerage practice of acting as an intermediary between their clients and investment projects – similar to how trust funds cooperate with banks – could pose a bigger danger to economic stability.

• Copper Falls on Concern China Housing Curbs Will Sap Demand

  Copper fell the most in a week amid concern that policy makers will expand efforts to cool the housing market in China, the world’s biggest consumer.

  Chinese stocks fell, dragging the benchmark index to a two- month low, as real estate and construction companies tumbled. Sina.com reported the southern city of Shenzhen banned developers from raising home prices. Accelerating inflation means the country should be on “high alert,” Zhou Xiaochuan, head of the People’s Bank of China, said today, signaling a heightened focus on controlling prices.

• China’s lending boom is on borrowed time

  China began 2013 with the same old economic model. Growth for the first two months of the year was driven mainly by exports and real estate. The increase in construction appears to have been fueled by credit. The current trajectory can continue only by pumping ever more leverage, and risk, into the system.

  Investment in cities was up 21% compared to the previous year in January and February — faster than the whole of 2012.

• E-House China’s “Neutral” Rating Reaffirmed at Goldman Sachs

  E-House China (NYSE: EJ)‘s stock had its “neutral” rating restated by analysts at Goldman Sachs in a research report issued to clients and investors on Wednesday. They currently have a $4.60 price target on the stock.

  The analysts wrote, “E-house (EJ) reported 4Q12 revenue of US$153mn, up 12% qoq and up 30% yoy, or 4% above GSe, mainly due to slightly stronger-than-expected primary sales in 4Q. Gross margin came in at 56%, in line.

This list is updated daily, so tune in again tomorrow for more up to date information, or subscribe to our daily email news digest to get this delivered to your mailbox.