CORRECTION—China Does NOT Have 90 Million Empty Apartments

It's only 30 million.

In the introduction to last Sunday's "China's Credit Impulse Is Positive As Global Credit Impulse Goes Negative" someone (ahem) wrote:

What's this have to do with the price of copper in China?

And will China start tearing down those 90 million empty apartments and recycling the metals?

So many questions.....

A good example of the "read too fast, process too slow" problem. My retention of the Bloomberg story from last September was good, unfortunately I retained the wrong number.

 

Here's Australia's MacroBusiness, you will see my error right up front:

 

Does China have 90 million empty apartments?

So says Bloomie:

A Nation of Empty Apartments

There are enough empty apartments in China to house an estimated 90 million people.

 

Note the source. And here it is:

There is enough empty property in China to house over 90m people, says Logan Wright, a Hong Kong-based director at Rhodium Group, a consultancy. To put that into perspective: there are five G7 countries — France, Germany, Italy, the UK and Canada — that could each fit their entire population into those empty Chinese apartments with room to spare. The average size of a household in China is just over three people. “We estimate existing but unsold housing inventory is in the range of 3bn square metres, which is enough to house 30m families, conservatively,” Wright says, explaining his calculations.

There is enough empty property in China to house over 90m people, says Logan Wright, a Hong Kong-based director at Rhodium Group, a consultancy. To put that into perspective: there are five G7 countries — France, Germany, Italy, the UK and Canada — that could each fit their entire population into those empty Chinese apartments with room to spare.

The average size of a household in China is just over three people. “We estimate existing but unsold housing inventory is in the range of 3bn square metres, which is enough to house 30m families, conservatively,” Wright says, explaining his calculations.

It is 90m people and 30m apartments....

....MORE

Regret the error.

However, from the Washington Post, December 18: 

Why some misremembering might show your memory is functioning properly

 

Coming up:

Automation, Fact Checking and the Decline of the News Business (plus Tracy and Hepburn)