China is waking up from its property nightmare
An ecstatic $38m luxury-mansion auction lights up the market
CHINA’S ECONOMY has been through a stress test in the past six months with the trade war shredding nerves. Tensions over tariffs are not over yet. On May 29th Scott Bessent, America’s treasury secretary, said that talks had “stalled”. President Donald Trump then exchanged accusations with China’s ministry of commerce about who had violated the agreement reached on May 12th to reduce duties. On June 4th, Mr Trump wrote on social media that President Xi Jinping was “extremely hard to make a deal with”. Yet even as the trade war staggers on, two things may be reassuring Mr Xi. One is that so far the economy has been resilient. Private-sector growth estimates for 2025 remain in the 4-5% range. The other is that one of China’s biggest economic nightmares seems to be ending: the savage property crunch.
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This article appeared in the China section of the print edition under the headline “Bottoming out”
From the June 7th 2025 edition
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