Real Estate Growing & Slowing; No PBOC Repos This Week

Small Shanghai apartment sells for less than 10,000 yuan per sqm because the building hit another building. 上海一小区房价大跌：63平米房子仅卖40万

First and Second-Tier Land Sales Heat Up 一二线城市土地市场有所回暖 开发商加快抢地

Banks cut off credit to Shanghai developer, 30 buildings left unfinished 一线城市某房企遭各家银行停贷 已有30余项目烂尾

Following the Shanghai Wyatt of home funding strand breaks, another named Owen Shanghai housing prices buyers are troubled funds depleted, which is located in Jinshan District of Owen County Grand twice delayed the project submitted, lay unfinished for several months .

"We also hope to settle the matter as soon as possible, in the bank stopped lending, loan pumping case, entirely on its own funds and private loans to finance development projects, it is too painful." Owen Land Company, a sales charge of Shanghai person said, after nearly six months of consultations and negotiations with a third party company basically reached a purchase agreement, the agency's Shanghai branch has agreed to disk access, only to be instructed Beijing headquarters.

China Loosens Monetary Policy Further as PBOC Scraps Repo Sales

China’s central bank refrained from selling repurchase agreements for the first time since July, loosening monetary policy further as a report showed industrial companies’ profits fell by the most in two years.

The People’s Bank of China didn’t conduct any open-market operations in today’s auction window, after cutting interest rates last week for the first time since 2012. It last suspended sales of repos, which drain funds from the banking system, in the week of July 21 as initial public offerings boosted cash demand. Guotai Junan Securities Co. estimated such share sales tied up 1.6 trillion yuan ($261 billion) this week, while maturing repos injected a net 35 billion yuan.

Major Reform Threshold Crossed: Yuan Will Be Fully Convertible in Shanghai Free Trade Zone...Or Will It?

Here it comes. As I've consistently said, this is bearish for the yuan in the short-run because of built up imbalances, but bullish long-term.

China to allow free yuan exchange in Shanghai zone: draft plan

China will allow unfettered exchange of its yuan currency in its first free trade zone, a draft plan seen by AFP Thursday showed, in a bold push to reform the world's second largest economy.

The free trade zone (FTZ) in Shanghai is intended to make the city into a true international trade and financial centre and challenge the free economy of Hong Kong, a special administrative region of China, analysts and government officials said.

Premier Li Keqiang, who took office in March, is backing the zone -- which his cabinet approved last month -- to be one of the crowning achievements of his administration, they said.

The draft plan seen by AFP showed the FTZ goes beyond greater liberalisation of trade to take in investment and financial services -- including free convertibility of currency.

"Under the pre-condition that risk can be controlled, in the zone convertibility of the renminbi on the capital account will be conducted, the first to carry out and test (it)," the plan said.

It does not explicitly state that the exchange rate will be purely market set.

Risk cannot be controlled, and it doesn't matter whether the market sets the yuan price or the central bank continues to set it. If the yuan is freely convertible, the market will set the price in Shanghai and funds will pour in or out. If not, the price will be set in Hong Kong and funds will flow in or out of Shanghai. The "fake exports" yuan rally will be a small blip compared to the fiscal imbalances that will come out of this free trade zone.

Minor earthquake in Shanghai

Shanghai has 1.2 magnitude earthquake Weibo users report feeling quake上海发生1.2级地震 微博网友曝有震感

【新民网·独家报道】4月2日0点27分左右，上海市府新闻办官方微博"上海发布"发布微博称：上海地震台网测定，2012年4月2日23时27分51.9秒，在上海市闵行区发生1.2级地震，震中位置北纬31.1度，东经121.5度。新浪微博大量网友表示有震感。另据上海地震局官方微博称，这种大小规模的地震在上海每年会发生5次左右，属地壳正常能量释放状态。

At 11:27:51.9 PM in the evening, there was a 1.2 magnitude earthquake in the Minhang district of Shanghai. The epicenter was latitude 31.1 degrees north, longitude 121.5 degrees. Weibo users reported feeling the quake. The Shanghai Seismological Bureau says Shanghai experiences about five quakes of this magnitude each year.

Massive cracks in Shanghai's financial center

Literally. Liujiazui, the financial center in Pudong, is cracking under the strain of too many skyscrapers and the tallest one (Shanghai Tower) is still under construction.

For a very detailed discussion of the building above, see the SkyscraperPage Forum entry (currently at 60 pages): Shanghai Tower / 上海中心大厦 | 2,073 FT / 632 M | 128 FLOORS


According to this article in Caixin 632米高楼上海中心施工 引发陆家嘴沉降, the cracks are due to construction and Shanghai's soft land. Shanghai literally means on the sea and much of the land is sand. However, as a sign of current social mood, many Shanghai residents fear that it could be the total weight of the buildings (skyscrapers in Shanghai are clustered in the financial district of Pudong) and a catastrophe could occur. In the article, engineers said this type of ground disturbance is normal in Shanghai when doing construction. However, one engineer does lend credence to this fear.

Chief Engineer Yan Xuexin of the Shanghai Institute of Geological Survey said that a single high-rise building usually will have an evenly distributed settlement, so there will be little impact on the building itself. However, the group of high-rise buildings form a cohesive force, causing the entire city of Shanghai to have a certain degree, a certain area of uneven settlement, so much that it causes hidden dangers.

上海市地质调查研究院总工程师严学新曾经表示，对单个高层建筑而言，一般发生的都是均匀沉降，所以不大会对建筑物本身发生太大影响。但是，众多位置、规格不一的高层建筑形成合力，对整个上海市就会造成某种程度、某种区域内的不均匀沉降，甚至引发建筑安全隐患。

H/T: Chinasmack. Shanghai Ground Cracking Under the Weight of Its Skyscrapers