全民都在炒房！中国2018年空置房达5000万套！

Chinese president Xi Jinping’s mantra that homes should be for living in is falling on deaf ears, with tens of millions of apartments and houses standing empty across the country.

人们对于国家主席习近平“房子是用来住的”这一告诫充耳不闻，全国空置的公寓和房屋高达数千万套。

Soon-to-be-published research will show roughly 22 per cent of China’s urban housing stock is unoccupied, according to professor Gan Li, who runs the main nationwide study. That adds up to more than 50 million empty homes, he said.

一项即将发布的研究将显示，全国城镇房屋存量中大约22%是空置的，负责此项研究的甘犁教授说道。加在一起就是超过5,000万套空置房。

“There’s no other single country with such a high vacancy rate,” said Gan, of Chengdu’s Southwestern university of Finance and Economics. “Should any crack emerge in the property market, the homes to be offloaded will hit China like a flood.”

“没有哪个国家有这么高的空置率，”成都西南财经大学的甘犁教授说道。“如果房地产市场出现问题，房屋抛售就会像洪水一样。”

Housing speculation has bedevilled China’s leaders for years, as some cities and provinces tightened buying restrictions only to see money flooding into other areas. Rampant price gains also mean millions of people are shut out from the market, exacerbating inequality. Xi famously said in October last year that “houses are built to be inhabited, not for speculation.”

房地产投机已经困扰中国领导人多年。一些城市和省份收紧了购买限制，但这仅仅导致金钱流入其他区域。飙升的价格还意味着数百万人被该市场拒之门外，这加剧了不平等。习近平曾在去年十月份表示：“房子是用来住的，不是用来炒的。”

Holiday homes and the empty dwellings of migrants seeking work elsewhere account for some of the deserted properties, but purchases for investment are a key factor keeping the vacancy rate high, according to Gan.

据甘梨教授介绍，虽然度假房和人民外出打工促成了部分空置房，但购买投资仍是高空置率的主要因素。