China wants migrant workers to buy vacant homes

Beijing

RATTLED by the potential economic fallout from millions of unsold homes, China wants migrant workers to buy properties in smaller cities and ease the burden on a real estate sector that makes up about 15 per cent of the country's economic growth.

The move underscores Beijing's concerns over a stock of some one billion sq m of vacant housing - around 13 million homes or enough to house the population of Australia - and the broader knock-on effect of any defaults by struggling property developers as the world's second largest economy grows at its slowest pace in a quarter of a century.