of a speculative real estate bubble, or genuine increases in demand. Evidence for a bubble included significant numbers of vacant or under-performing commercial and residential properties and the continued construction of property despite these facts, including an estimated 64 million vacant apartments. There were high price-to-income ratios for real estate, such as in Beijing where the ratio is 27 to 1 years, five times the international average, (27 to 1 is based on a double income household so 54 to 1 for a single income household of roughly US$6,500/yr) and high price-to-rent ratios for real estate, such as in Beijing where the ratio is 500:1 months compared to the global ratio of 300:1 months There was a weak secondary market for Chinese homes, with the ratio of secondary to primary residential property transactions at 0.26 for the first half of 2009 (four times as many new home purchases as secondary sales). Comparably, Hong Kong had a ratio of 7.25, and the U.S. had a ratio of 13.45. Contributing to the bubble were Chinese companies in the chemical, steel, textile and shoe industries opening real estate divisions, expecting higher returns than in their core businesses During this period, residential housing investment as a share of China's GDP has tripled from 2% in 2000 to 6% in 2011, similar to the peak of the U.S. housing bubble. Analysts, including Cao Jianhai, professor at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Andy Xie, a Shanghai economist, and Zhang Xin, a CEO of Beijing real estate developer SOHO China warned of the threat of a bubble and the economic stagnation that would follow. In response to fears of a bubble, in the summer of 2011, Standard & Poor's downgraded its outlook for China real estate development sector to negative from stable, following a tightening of credit conditions in the country and slower sales. However, trends of increasing urbanization and rising incomes in China seemed to continue to support real estate prices. The World Bank stated in a November 2009 report that Chinese home prices had not outpaced increases in incomes on a nationwide level, which dispelled worries of a looming bubble. However, in its 17 March 2010 quarterly report, the group said China needed to raise interest rates to contain the risk of a property bubble. In China, there were comparatively conservative mortgage lending practices, particularly in contrast to those at the height of the