China’s banking system is in free fall and the country’s real estate losses could hit $4 trillion, veteran investor says

China’s banking system is collapsing, and the real estate crisis in the country could end up wiping out $4 trillion from its financial system, according to veteran investor Kyle Bass.

In an interview with Andrew Ross Sorkin on CNBC on Monday , the Hayman Capital Management CIO pointed to China’s property sector, which has been reeling in recent years as debts from major property owners sour and some firms default on their bonds. The real estate crisis has left enough empty homes in China to house 3 billion people, a former top Chinese official said, and the flood of unused supply will generation huge financial losses in the real estate sector.

Those losses are bound to have a big impact on China’s banking system, which is highly-levered, Bass said. Meanwhile, China’s local real estate market is mostly financed through local government financing vehicles, a market worth around $13 trillion, though much of that debt financing now in default, Bass said.

That suggests China’s banking losses could dwarf those seen in the US during the Great Financial Crisis, when US banks lost around $700 billion.

Source: Markets Insider