China's property market braced for 30% drop - papers

Standard Chartered has told clients to prepare for a fall in property prices of up to 30% in large Chinese cities as the delayed effects of monetary tightening begin to bite.

Stephen Green, the bank's China economist, said a glut of newly built homes were hitting the market just as buyers are restrained by higher down-payments and curbs on speculation, The Telegraph reports. "We believe developers will be forced to cut prices," he said. Kenneth Rogoff, ex-chief economist for the IMF, told Bloomberg Television in Hong Kong that the denouement could prove abrupt after such a torrid boom. "You are starting to see that collapse in property and it is going to hit the banking system," he said. The Government is trying to deflate the housing market gently, mos...