China’s real estate market was on a winning streak throughout most of the 2000s. In fact, local property buyers gained more than practically anyone else from the nation’s economic rise.Homes in major Chinese cities saw the largest gains. Real estate prices in Shanghai, Shenzhen, Guangzhou, and Shanghai tripled between the new millennium and the 2008 Global Recession.Something changed though. Property transaction volume since the “boom years” have entered freefall – especially in most of China’s first and second tier cities.Meanwhile, Chinese real estate developers are cutting sales prices of their new projects – often by as much as 30%.Rare signs of protest and public anger are showing as well. Would you be upset if you bought a condo, but prices dropped six months later giving new purchasers a better deal?

 That scenario is now a reality for some Chinese property buyers.Furthermore, it’s all happening during peak season for housing sales. The locals normally label these auspicious months “Silver October” and “Golden November”.You might think a website called “InvestAsian” would suggest buying property in China – Asia’s largest economy. But we don’t. Here are several reasons why you should not own property in China – especially if you’re a foreigner.China boasts the world’s biggest population with nearly 1.4 billion inhabitants (although India will take that title by 2030). Nonetheless, there are plenty of houses available for everyone to buy.Estimates place the number of unsold properties in China at over 50 million. 

That’s more than 1/5th of the entire country’s total private housing supply.The government also curbed mortgage lending to reduce the number of speculative purchases and second/third home sales. Very few Chinese citizens are buying houses in order to actually occupy them anymore.China will soon face a demographic crisis on top of everything else. Its population will peak at about 1.4 billion inhabitants by the year 2035.After that, China will rapidly age while shrinking in population size. Lower demand for housing will be just one of many negative repercussionsThey’ll soon become the first country to ever grow old before reaching developed nation status – a dire situation for China’s real estate market its and economy as a whole.I believe all those factors combined together will inevitably lead to a construction slowdown in China and/or a property crash.Equities in China have gone through a tough few years. Back in 2015, the Shanghai Composite Index was above 5,000 points. The index has since plummeted by half into the ~2,500 range.China’s stock market collapse has not been reported as such by the media. Yet a drop of 50%+ is certainly more than just a simple correction.Personally, I would call that a full-blown stock market collapse without any hesitation at all.