Good times seen coming to an end for China's real estate bonds

Shanghai

STEPS to cool China's property market are stoking speculation that the good times are about to end for developer bonds offshore.

The hangover would be big. Yield-starved fund managers around the world have piled into the US$65 billion market for dollar-denominated notes sold by Chinese builders. There is plenty of scope for pain after yield premiums for lower-rated US-currency securities from the nation, the majority of which are from real estate borrowers, dropped to the lowest level since 2007 this month, according to a Bank of America Merrill Lynch index.