Real Estate: Two sides of a coin

The crisis around China’s real estate sector is growing, as enraged citizens have been sending warnings to property developers, banks and local governments about overpaying mortgages, despite construction activities being stopped. The mortgage boycotts are posing a fresh challenge for the Xi Jinping government.

Construction activities have been stalled across the country and people’s life savings are getting eaten up. China’s property sector, which used to contribute around one-quarter of the nation’s GDP, has been in a crisis situation since 2020, due to COVID lockdowns and soaring debt.

Shifting our attention from China, things are not well in the United States too. A Federal Reserve report states that the households in the world’s largest economy are now battling with a debt crisis, which has reached a record high of USD 16.15 trillion in the 2022 second quarter, driven primarily by a USD 207 billion increase in mortgage balances. Credit card and auto loan debt have also been rising as consumers increase their borrowing to deal with skyrocketing inflation.

Moving on, let’s put our focus on the beleaguered crypto sector, where the digital currency’s negative volatility and an overall poor sentiment among customers have raised the question of whether the industry is going through a bubble burst phenomenon. As a result, the experts are now batting for the introduction of regulations to stabilise the sector.

While this edition revolves around these stories, our cover story is about a leading real estate development and investment firm in the MENA region, United Real Estate Company (URC), which has reported a massive increase in its net profit for the first half of 2022.

IF SEPT - OCT 2022

URC: CREATING VALUE FOR SHAREHOLDERS

URC is a leading real estate developer and investor in Kuwait and the MENA region

TECHNOLOGY

16

GIVE UP YOUR FLIGHT SEAT FOR MONEY

Around 34% of travelers are flying on Frontier Airlines, and 32% on Southwest Airlines

ECONOMY

UK MONARCHY: THE ROYAL FAMILY EMPIRE

The Crown Estate owns nearly the whole seabed surrounding the United Kingdom

IN CONVERSATION

34

OUR CAMPAIGNS HELP PEOPLE OF AFGHAN: ASEEL

Aseel, a mobile app originally designed to sell Afghan-made handicrafts to global markets

ANALYSIS

12 China's real estate crisis threatens global economy

30 Cost-effective biz website no more a dream

IS CRYPTO REGULATION GOOD?

Crypto regulation could bring more stability in a notoriously volatile market

38 58

WHY MUST BANKS TAKE ADVANTAGE OF SOCIAL MEDIA?

44 Is the Russian economy collapsing?

64 Cash is king, but it's not 'cheque mate' yet

Us Households Sinking In Debt

The total household debt in the US has increased by more than USD 2 trillion since the fourth quarter of 2019, right before the pandemic started www.internationalfinance.com

Director & Publisher Sunil Bhat

Editor-in-Chief

Sanjay Kumar

Editorial

Prajwal Wele, Agnivesh Harshan, CL Ramakrishnan, Prabuddha Ghosh

Production Merlin Cruz

Design & Layout

Vikas Kapoor

Technical Team

Prashanth V Acharya, Bharath Kumar

Business Analysts

Alice Parker, Indra Kala, Ayesha Misba, Stallone Edward, Jessica Smith, Rohit Samuel, Brian Johnson, Harry Wilson, Susan Lee, Mark Pinto

Business Development Manager

Sarah Jones, Sid Nathan, Christy John, Alex Carter, Gwen Morgan, Janet George

Business Development Directors

Sid Jain, Ryan Cooper

Accounts

Angela Mathews

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