China is home to world's hottest property stocks as investors ignore curbs

Beijing

THE world's hottest property stocks are to be found in China as tougher measures to cool real estate prices fail to deter investors.

Chinese companies account for nine of the 10 best performers this year on the Bloomberg World Real Estate Index. Among members of the MSCI China Index, Country Garden Holdings Co, Sunac China Holdings Ltd and China Evergrande Group are the standout winners with gains of more than 70 per cent, five times the pace of the benchmark measure.

Soaring sales and improving profits go some way to explaining a surprise rally that has pushed the shares into overbought levels, lifted valuations and forced short sellers to retreat. While Cr…