China’s Property Crisis Burns Middle Class Stuck With Huge Loans
- Homeowners cut spending, postpone marriage, boycott mortgage
- Housing market no longer seen as a sure bet as economy slows
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China’s deepening property bust is sending shock waves through the nation’s 400-million-strong middle class, upending the belief that real estate is a surefire way to build wealth.
Now, as property developments stall across the country and house prices fall, many Chinese homeowners are slashing spending, postponing marriage and other life decisions, and, in a growing number of cases, withholding mortgage payments on unfinished homes.