House hunting is of course the last thing on people’s minds during an epidemic. Business is understandably slow for property developers around China. Last year, local regulators unsuccessfully rolled out restrictions in an attempt to control surging home prices. Now, the coronavirus outbreak may well manage to do what the government could not. The coming weeks will bring the biggest test yet for China’s most indebted property developers, such as Evergrande and Guangzhou R&F.
在流行病暴發期間,看房自然是人們最不想做的事情。對中國各地的房地產開發商來說,生意冷清是可以理解的。去年,地方監管機構出臺一系列限制措施,以控制不斷飆升的房價,但並不成功。如今,新冠病毒疫情很有可能做到了政府做不到的事情。未來幾周,恆大(Evergrande)和廣州富力(Guangzhou R&F)等中國負債最重的房地產開發商將迎來迄今最嚴峻的考驗。