[yorwba]

Few people people can afford giant mansion apartments, but that doesn't mean they all stay vacant. With a lot of improvised plumbing and wiring plus drywall each of the original giant rooms can be turned into a much tinier apartment that can be rented out individually. I have lived in such a converted apartment and while it was pretty obvious that the original floorplan wasn't made for so many small units, I got used to it pretty quickly.

[baybal2]

Yes, this is what is happening. People who run airbnbs or ziroom apartments like them.

Rents in China are still super cheap in comparison to the property and land price.

[thaumasiotes]

They always will be. The Chinese place much more value on owning (as opposed to renting) than other people do.

That is why the rhetorical enemy of communism in China was "landlords". It's why a fundamental platform of the current CCP is that landownership is illegal. ("the land belongs to the country", 土地是国家的)

[bobthepanda]

It's also because there aren't really alternative investment forms. Investing abroad is heavily restricted. Local investment markets are not mature enough for there to be Chinese equivalents of 401ks. And local pensions aren't great.

Housing is pretty much the only thing in China that has generated positive return on investment.

[thaumasiotes]

That may be so, but you can watch the price of owning relative to renting spike in any area that experiences an influx of Chinese.