Friday, 6 November 2009

Understanding China: Property Market and Stock Market

Understanding China

China has expanded its economy for the last 20 years.  Its growth over the last 10 years was even more impressive than the first 10 years.

Its present stock market is trading at a PE of 50.  This is not sustainable.

Why is the PE so high? 

Being a relatively new stock market, the 'investors' are not savvy and the price fluctuations are expected to be larger than a mature market.

Another reason is the absence of other assets for the growing affluent Chinese to invest in.  Besides keeping money in the bank, most Chinese invest into the property sectors and the stock markets.  The high prices in these markets are reflecting the disparity in the excess demand over supply.

Properties in China's biggest cities, Shanghai and Peking have doubled in price over the last 5 years.  This rise appears unabated.  Some properties have risen another 2% to 10% over the last few months.  Rental yields can support about 50% of the mortgage repayments in most cases.  The gains in investing into these properties are purely capital gains from property price appreciations.

In Peking, it is not uncommon to find a 3 bedroom flat in a condominium centrally located priced at 5 million yuan.  The average per capital income of the local Peking resident is around 2,000 yuan per month.  How can such prices be supported?  Are these properties affordable?  Is there a disconnect between the prices of properties and the affordability of the people who are going to buy and live in them?  Giving the present limited supply relative to demand, the price can continue to be supported.  This can be explained by the unequal distribution of wealth among the population.  There is a small group enjoying a large percentage of the wealth and this group will continue to invest into the property and the stock market in China.  There is still some time to go to equilibrium.

There are many businesses in China with huge business opportunities tapping the capital market.  The A shares cannot be traded by foreigners.  To participate in the Chinese companies one would need to buy the H shares of these Chinese companies listed in the Hong Kong Stock Exchange (HangSeng).

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