What is happening in China’s vast residential market? In 2019, price growth clearly slowed down, while still remaining positive. This was partly due to ongoing government measures aimed at cooling speculation, but also a reflection of China’s slowing overall economy, which last year grew at its slowest pace in 29 years. At the same time, national sales volume remained relatively resilient and held steady.

Then, of course, China had a very tumultuous start to 2020. The novel coronavirus (officially known as COVID-19) epidemic, which originated in Wuhan in China’s Hubei province this past December, shut down major parts of the country and affected businesses everywhere. Nobody yet knows the full extent of damage this coronavirus will cause, but Knight Frank reports HSBC expects property sales to drop by 10 percent year-over-year in 2020, as several cities have required developers to close sales offices and stop construction amid coronavirus fears. HSBC says sales office c