{
  "id": 2104124,
  "title": "Evergrande’s rise, fall and China’s property woes",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/08/20/evergrandes-rise-fall-and-chinas-property-woes",
  "topic": "business",
  "section": "Business",
  "published": "2026-08-20T08:10:50.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "The Economic Times",
    "slug": "the-economic-times",
    "url": "https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/international/business/evergrandes-rise-and-fall-a-timeline-of-chinas-property-crisis/articleshow/133369620.cms"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "On Thursday, a Shenzhen court handed down a severe verdict against Chinese property giant Evergrande, sentencing founder Xu Jiayin to life in prison and imposing fines of over $2 billion on the company and an affiliated entity. This marks a culmination of the developer's downfall, which has become emblematic of China's property crisis. However, the underlying issues that triggered Evergrande's collapse continue to burden China's economy and pose a significant challenge for policymakers.\n\nEvergrande's ascent coincided with China's rapid urbanization and rising household incomes. After listing on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in 2009, the company swiftly became one of the nation's largest property firms, with its market value peaking at more than $50 billion under Xu Jiayin's leadership. However, in 2020, Beijing enacted regulations to curb excessive borrowing by property developers, which hampered Evergrande's ability to fulfill its financial commitments.\n\nAs the broader property downturn worsened, Evergrande faced mounting difficulties in completing housing projects, saw its shares depreciate, and experienced a decline in its cash reserves. The company defaulted in 2021, and a Hong Kong court ordered its liquidation in 2024. Subsequently, its shares were delisted from the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in August of the previous year.\n\nXu Jiayin admitted guilt in April to charges encompassing fraud and bribery during a public hearing, where he faced accusations such as illegally absorbing public deposits, fraudulent fundraising, illicit loan issuance, and illicit fund utilization, as per court statements.\n\nThe Evergrande situation mirrors a wider property downturn that has affected developers such as Country Garden, Vanke, and Kaisa, casting a shadow over consumer confidence and making potential homebuyers more reluctant to invest in property. This weakness surfaces at a challenging moment for Beijing, which seeks to pivot China's growth model towards domestic consumption and reduce its reliance on property and infrastructure investment.\n\nAccording to Alicia Garcia-Herrero, Asia-Pacific chief economist at Natixis, the Evergrande crisis has made the property problem more systemic and exposed systemic weaknesses in the housing market. Factors contributing to weak housing demand include stagnant household disposable incomes and an aging Chinese population. Recent data revealed a decline in new-home prices in July compared to June.\n\nChinese policymakers are striving to mitigate the damage from the property crisis while averting broader economic instability. Dan Wang, a director on Eurasia Group's China team, emphasized that Thursday's court action sends a clear message to developers, indicating that Beijing remains firm in its stance and does not intend to bail out the property sector. The verdict also underscores the need for companies to exercise caution when taking on debt.\n\nDespite the containment efforts, Beijing continues to focus on reviving a faltering economy. The government has set a GDP growth target of 4.5-5% for this year, marking its lowest official target in decades. Growth dipped below this range in the second quarter of the year, while July data showed retail sales declining compared to the previous year. The property sector has been particularly vulnerable, with investment in real estate development falling nearly 20% year-on-year in the first seven months of the year, highlighting the magnitude of the challenge confronting China's policymakers.",
  "summary": null,
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}