Running on empty: how Evergrande became the world’s most indebted property company

First, there were the apartment blocks, then came the football team, the mineral water company, the music brand, the amusement parks and finally the electric vehicles.

Evergrande’s model worked as long as it could keep building and selling at an inexorable rate. It would borrow to buy land, get homeowners to buy off the plans, and then borrow again to start another project. It had to sell properties quickly and cheaply but in a market filled with investors nervous about a property downturn, it has not been able to find enough buyers. More than 800 projects are now floundering, crippled by cash shortages and construction delays. ChineseEvergrande needed $21 billion to complete apartment blocks already underway.

But it faces a larger $115 million interest payment on its overseas bond on the same day and then another $65 million payment next Wednesday. It has not said how it will meet these obligations.If it fails to settle both by October, it will default leaving thousands of creditors, employees and homeowners out of pocket protesting outside its headquarters. A default could trigger a wider contagion sell-off due to its critical position within the Chinese and international property market.

ErykBagshaw ‘there are five G7 countries — France, Germany, Italy, the UK and Canada — that could each fit their entire population into those empty Chinese apartments with room to spare.’

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What will overseas buyers do to the Gold Coast's booming property market?People who can't even visit the places they're buying are already driving demand through the roof, so how will things look when the foreign money starts rolling back in? when the border is reopened there would be a rush of Chinese buyers seeking safe haven As in Canada it would distort d market Estate agents would be rushing to China even inspection charter flights Just greedy preying on buyers Foreigners paying 1.2m, locals paying 1m, I know who I want to sell my property to. DominicCansdale Amazing that apartment towers would be popular in a pandemic world, where a single covid19qld case in one high rise would render it less useable
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