A $292 Billion Difference of Opinion Roils China Property Stocks
- As the gap between bulls and bears grows, volatility is rising
- ‘This is no normal market,’ says CLSA analyst Nicole Wong
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Nothing divides analysts in Asia quite like the outlook for Chinese property companies, and that’s turning their shares into some of the region’s most volatile investments.
The split between optimists, who tend to focus on surging home sales, and pessimists, who worry about high debt burdens, has rarely been so big: Chinese developers now have three of the five widest share-price target ranges among Asian companies with a market value exceeding $1 billion. If you believe the most bullish analysts, China’s major listed property firms will be worth $596 billion in a year. Listen to the bears, and you get a forecast of $304 billion.