Aerial photo shows a rural residential area in Chengdong town of Hai ‘an City, East China’s Jiangsu Province, April 1, 2023.Future Publishing | Future Publishing | Getty ImagesChina’s real estate troubles are accelerating. Prospective home buyers are holding back on making purchases, leading to weak sales that compound the urgent need for policymakers to step up support for the industry.New home sales for the top 100 developers dropped by about a third in June and July from a year ago, after double-digit growth earlier in the year, said Edward Chan, a director at S&P Global Ratings. With most apartments in China sold before they are completed, weak new home sales will likely lead to significant cash flow issues for developers.”We think the situation is probably getting a little bit worse because of this Country Garden incident,” Chan told CNBC in a phone interview Thursday. He added he hasn’t seen any improvement in new home sales so far.At a time when rafts of data are pointing to a rapidly slowi …
