one thing you should understand is that 90%+ purchased apartments in China over the past 15 years exhibit a higher current appraised value than when they were purchased, meaning almost all apartments and hence loans do not have a negative equity value at the current time. That fact is what Mish and many others do not want to accept. The appreciation of most of such investments results in the unwillingness of most owners to sell their property because they are deep in the money. Even a 30% drop will still leave the value above purchase levels in the majority of cases. Thus the situation in China's real estate market is an entirely different from the situation 3-4 years ago in the US when there was a fair percentage of mortgage holders who could hardly withstand a 10% drop. Keep this in mind to gain a proper perspective of the big picture.
Quote from heech:
Two questions:
1) Does anyone know whether European mortgages are (typically) recourse? I.e., can the bank go after your other assets, or are they limited to claiming the property?
2) Can Europeans discharge their debts through a personal bankruptcy process, which is wiped off your record within a specified time frame?
3) Are loans structured with huge balloons in interest payment?
I ask, because I personally believe these were huge contributors to the US real estate decline. The real decline in property values didn't come from transactions between individuals... but usually only when owners (often investors) simply walked away from their properties, giving up possession to the lender. This often occurred when debt payments "adjusted" to a much higher rate.
This is fundamentally different from the situation in China. Mortgage loans in China are absolutely recourse: you can't "walk away", the debt stays with you indefinitely. Debts in China can not be discharged by bankruptcy; the debt stays with you indefinitely. Loans are all adjustable, but within a range specified by the central bank. There are TIGHT standards on loan to value (<80% appraised value), loan to income, and even age of borrower (mortgage maturity + age <= 65).
So, with that in mind... let's say that you're a real estate speculator in China, and your property is now under water. What's your motivation for selling? If you sell, you still *have* to immediately repay the negative equity value. On the other hand, if you don't sell... the requirement is that you maintain the same debt payments you've already been paying for X number of years. As long as the broader economy does not crash, there simply will NOT be a cascade of defaults leading to depression prices.