Well in china also a lot of people ended up purchasing apparentments in the ghost cities as an investment.. so how do these count? .. Actual question, as this seems to be why the economy is in so much danger: since a lot of private people hold debts that are not covered by the actual value of the real estate it was used to purchase. So many people are insolvent at the moment.

And Japan was even worse (and is still bad, I only referenced it because there are so many parallels between china now and 80's Japan real estate in terms of artificially inflated prices). and a bubble that stretched everywhere. In the aftermath the government concluded that speculation with the housing market due to artificial scarcity was a main driver in the risks.. either good investment or affordable.