There was a big story a few years ago about "Ghost Cities" where because the Chinese government doesn't let its citizens play with capitalist things like the stock market etc. everyone put their spare money into new homes. The population data seemed to indicated that China would easily fill them but they stayed empty. They then tried to explain this as people were choosing to go to university rather than straight into a job, so the home data was a couple of years adrift but they would come... They are still waiting and the housing economy bubble has well and truly popped now.