Property bust in China rattles households

People walk next to residential buildings in the coal city of Hegang in China on January 2, 2020. [Reuters]

Homeowners in small Chinese cities are battling a rare property market downdraft as buyers keep away, eroding the wealth of millions in a blow to already brittle consumer confidence in the world’s second-largest economy.

Smaller cities have been hammered by falling home prices for seven months since September, the latest tally of 70 major cities by China’s statistics bureau shows.