Courtesy of Tyler Durden
We have already seen Chinese ghost cities, rickety buildings, and a construction spree that makes our own unionized labor force seem positive antiquated. Time to add empty malls to the list. The latest confirmed sighting of Chanos’ "treadmill to hell" China real estate bubble thesis comes from Bloomberg’s Paul Allen who reports from Dongguan, China on the New South China Mall, which has remained mostly vacant since it opened in 2005. Allen tours the South China Mall, originally conceived as the world’s largest mall, and finds retail space that has been largely vacant since 2005. Allen reports, "The reality at South China Mall is somewhat different: shuttered shops, unfinished, never occupied by a single tenant. The few retailers that are here have favorable leases, but little profit." Allen also states that despite obvious problems, the mall’s owners plan to expand to more than one million square meters of retail and residential space will be available.
