China’s property sector a bubble that needed bursting: Hong Kong property broker Centaline

[HONG KONG] A slump in China’s property prices has left Hong Kong-based Centaline Group with a pile of unpaid agent commissions, and the company’s co-founder and chairman Shih Wing Ching is not sure how much he can do about it.

China’s property market has all the classic signs of a bursting bubble, he added, and supply needs to be cut.

Centaline is one of Hong Kong’s largest property brokerages. After 1998, when Hong Kong was handed back to China, it crossed the border to operate in the mainland. It quickly became one of China’s largest players, too, with more than 50,000 local agents stationed in offices across 30-plus cities at one point.