Speculation by listed companies distorting the real estate market

STATISTICS SHOW THAT 46 percent of the 3,582 companies listed in China's A-share market possess real estate investments, which are worth about 990 billion yuan ($149 billion) in total, up nearly 20 percent year-on-year. Beijing News comments:

It is no secret that the listed companies have become the main speculators in the realty market, pocketing thick and easy returns from the fast rise of housing prices, as local governments' macro-control policies to control housing prices have largely put private buyers in their cross hairs over the past 10 years.

No wonder the governments of Xi'an, Changsha and Hangzhou have suspended enterprises and public institutes purchasing residential houses recently, and that more local governments are likely to follow suit.

Few businesses secured an annual surge of 20 percent in profits over the past 10 years from their business operations. But by speculating in the real estate market they have.

With their strong purchasing power, the listed companies have evolved into hands pushing up the soaring housing prices. They have boosted the demand, distorting the supply-demand relations in the market.

The listed companies have large numbers of residential houses in their hands and they are invariably good at hoarding for profiteering purposes. Colluding with each other, they have acquired the capacity to influence the supply of houses in the market in some cities.

Supposed to be representatives of the business community, the listed companies should have set a good example by creating profits through innovation, efficient management or using cutting-edge technologies. Instead, they have played a bad role in disturbing the order of the housing market, with which most of them actually have no business connections.

In fact, some listed companies rely on the speculation revenue from property deals to make up the losses in their main businesses. In other words, were it not for the gain from the sideline fronts helping them to make ends meet, some of them would have been delisted.