Govt buys unsold homes to help China builders

Beijing

DISMAYED by the millions of unsold homes in China's troubled real estate market, the Chinese government is taking matters into its own hands: by buying some properties and turning them into public housing.

Like a white knight riding to the rescue of distressed developers, a handful of local governments are snapping up thousands of empty homes at hefty discounts and re-selling them to the country's poorest households.

This cannot be a cure-all for China's huge supply overhang. At the end of May, according to the National Bureau of Statistics, unsold residential floor space totalled 657 square kilometres - the most unsold space…