Big believer in real estate now a skeptic due to sluggish sales

When the economy slows, housing sector slackens too, tycoon says

Real estate tycoon Ren Zhiqiang never seems to be afraid to air his views, often in strong terms, and when he airs them, a lot of people sit up and take notice.

But one of Ren's recent prognostications has drawn more interest than usual because he seems to have had a complete change of heart on where the Chinese property market is heading.

Over the past few years, Ren has gained a reputation for being one of the firmest believers in the strength of the market. However, in the recent interview he said that, despite continued economic growth, it was looking more and more unlikely that the real estate market would be able to pull itself out of its current malaise.

Ren, chairman of Huayuan Property Co Ltd of Beijing, has a strong market statistics base and a research team. Most of his forecasts in the past few years have proved to be accurate.

For some industry indsiders that has given Ren’s change of perspective extra credence, suggesting that China’s real estate market, especially in smaller cities with huge supply, now face serious problems.

Economic figures for Augest painted gloomy picture: industrial output grew at the alowest pace since 2008 amid the global financial crisis, and fixed-assets investment, an important driver of economy activity, slowed to a 14-year low of 16.5 percent in the first eight months of the year.

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