عالمی ریئل اسٹیٹ خبریں

Beijing | ReNews International Desk News
A Chinese court has sentenced Hui Ka Yan, founder of heavily indebted property developer China Evergrande Group, to life imprisonment in a financial crimes case and ordered the confiscation of all his personal assets.
Hui, who was once ranked as Asia’s richest person, had built one of China’s most prominent property empires and was widely seen as a symbol of extraordinary wealth creation. His business fortunes, however, collapsed following Evergrande’s severe financial crisis and its failure to meet mounting debt obligations.
According to reports, Hui pleaded guilty in April to eight charges brought against him. The offences included misuse of funds, fraudulent fundraising, illegally raising money from the public, unlawful extension of loans, fraudulent issuance of securities and bribery-related crimes.
A court in the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen delivered the verdict on Thursday, sentencing Hui to life imprisonment and ordering the seizure of all his personal property.
Evergrande was once one of China’s largest and most influential property developers. During years of rapid expansion, the company relied heavily on borrowing to finance housing and other real estate projects across the country, but it later struggled to meet its financial obligations.
The company accumulated liabilities of around $300 billion, and its failure to repay creditors not only pushed Evergrande into a deep financial crisis but also exposed broader structural weaknesses in China’s property sector.
Evergrande’s collapse came as the Chinese real estate market was already facing weaker demand, excessive debt, unfinished housing projects and growing financial stress among several major developers. The downturn in the property sector also spilled over into the wider Chinese economy and financial markets.
Hui was detained by Chinese authorities in 2023 and had not been seen publicly since. The action against him followed Evergrande’s debt defaults and subsequent investigations into the company’s financial affairs.
Despite the court’s order to confiscate Hui’s personal assets, it remains unclear how much relief the move will provide to Evergrande’s domestic and overseas creditors. The company’s enormous liabilities and complex financial structure continue to make creditor recovery a major challenge.
Hui’s sentencing is one of the most significant legal actions to emerge from China’s prolonged property downturn in recent years. It marks a dramatic end to the rise of a businessman who was once among Asia’s wealthiest individuals, while the company he founded later became one of the most prominent symbols of China’s property crisis.

A sustained recovery in the US housing market will depend heavily on mortgage rates easing, according to a survey of real estate agents who say high borrowing costs are discouraging both buyers and sellers.

The Real REMAX Group’s Agent Optimism Index, which measures agents’ 12-month outlook on a scale of 0 to 100, fell to 45.8 in September from 54.3 in August. The decline reflects growing concern that mortgage rates will remain too high to bring more buyers into the market. In the firm’s monthly survey, conducted from October 1 to 9 and released on October 30, 65% of 177 agents said 30-year mortgage rates would need to fall below 6% to meaningfully stimulate buyer demand. More than one-third, or 37%, said rates would need to drop below 5.5%.

High rates are already affecting housing activity. Two-thirds of respondents said buyers were pausing or delaying their home searches. Sellers are also holding back: 39% of agents reported that prospective sellers had postponed plans to list their homes.
Some sellers are responding to the slowdown by becoming more flexible on price and terms. Thirty-five per cent of agents said they had seen sellers reduce asking prices, while 34% reported sellers offering concessions to attract buyers.

The outlook for prices is also weakening. If mortgage rates remain around 7% next year, nearly 60% of survey respondents expect home prices to fall. About 33% anticipate a decline of more than 5%.
“Higher mortgage rates are putting renewed pressure on an already challenging housing market,” Real REMAX Group Chairman and CEO Tamir Poleg said in a statement accompanying the survey. Poleg said buyers had gained more negotiating power, but affordability remained a major barrier, prompting many to delay their searches. He added that a lasting recovery in housing activity would depend substantially on meaningful mortgage rate relief.

The survey’s findings echo Goldman Sachs’ outlook for the US housing market in 2027. The firm’s economists expect existing-home sales and new-home construction to decline. They forecast 3.9 million existing-home sales next year, alongside a modest 0.8% rise in home prices.

Goldman Sachs economists Ronnie Walker and David Mericle said that many homeowners who refinanced at low rates in 2020 and 2021 now face a significant financial cost if they move while current mortgage rates remain high.