The mainland housing market will pick up next year, and that will drive the overall economy, said Stephen Green, head of greater China research at Standard Chartered Bank.
"The Chinese economy is picking up, especially real estate. Developers are coming back to buy land. Construction will come back in March or April," he said at a Hong Kong General Chamber of Commerce seminar yesterday.
The three main leading indicators of China's future economic activity are infrastructure projects, credit and real estate, Green said.
Property is very important for the country's economy, because it drives consumption of items like cars, he said.
"Developers are going to start building next year, which has huge implications for demand for cement and building materials," Green said.
Housing inventory has been dropping in China's tier one to tier three cities, which indicates a need to build more units, he said.