Monetary Easing Meets Market Substitution in China’s Property Sector

China’s once monolithic housing market is splitting in two. While the official sales figures appear to have found a floor, the action has migrated to the resale market, where deeper price cuts and lower perceived construction risk are luring buyers away from the glossy showrooms of big developers. That migration matters, because it changes how—and how much—monetary easing will filter through to the bricks-and-mortar economy.