In a move to bolster the stability of the property market, Shanghai city has unveiled a plan to buy second-hand homes for use as public rental housing, reports the South China Morning Post. The move aims to bolster stability in the property market and is timed to coincide with the opening of the city’s annual “two sessions” meetings.

With the official launch of a pilot programme on Monday, the city aims to meet rental demand from young residents including college students and new urban arrivals. The initiative will roll out first in the downtown districts of Pudong, Jing’an and Xuhui.

Backed by China Construction Bank, the move was intended to encourage housing affordability, stimulate market liquidity and shorten wait times for public rental housing, officials said.

China has warned Panama there would be “heavy prices” to pay after a court ruling declared Hong Kong-based CK Hutchison’s contract to operate two ports at the Panama Canal was unconstitutional, reports Reuters.

China’s Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office called the ruling by Panama’s Supreme Court “absurd,” “shameful and pathetic,” and vowed to defend the interests of Chinese firms.

“China has sufficient means and tools, and sufficient strength and ability to defend a fair and just international economic and trade order,” the office said. If the Panamanian authorities “insist on having their own way… heavy prices both politically and economically will surely be paid!” it added.

The country’s top 100 developers reported combined contracted sales of RMB 165.5 billion (US$24 billion) in January, down 27% from a year earlier, reports the South China Morning Post, citing data released over the weekend by China Real Estate Information Corporation (CRIC).

Stress was particularly acute among offshore borrowers. The combined contracted sales of 18 major developers with outstanding US-dollar bonds fell 53.67% in January from December, and 18.51% year on year, a Barclays report published on Monday showed, pointing to weakening debt-repayment capacity.

Even after adjusting for seasonal effects, the month-on-month drop in January sales for these major developers was steeper than the post-Covid historical average decline of 44%, the British bank said.

China’s largest private education company in terms of market value has begun offering leisure courses such as dance and photography for older adults in Beijing, reports the South China Morning Post. This comes as it pivots towards the country’s fast-growing silver economy.

Since a ban on for-profit tutoring in core academic subjects in 2021, New Oriental has diversified into new areas, including live streaming e-commerce. Amid falling birth rates and a prolonged decline in the number of Chinese students studying in the United States, its latest foray targets older consumers.

“The silver economy has strong growth potential,” said Fu Yifu, a special researcher at Su Merchants Bank in Nanjing, eastern Jiangsu province. As the sector expands, Fu said, demand among seniors was rising for hobbies, social interaction and emotional well-being.

The new year has begun with renewed talk from Beijing of boosting consumption—that is, getting people to buy stuff—but all signs appear to be heading the other way. The latest news, for example, includes a continuation of the property sector slump with January sales figures from the 100 largest developers down 27% from a year earlier (a contraction of RMB 165.5 billion), while Vanke lost RMB 82 billion last year (a more than 65% bigger loss than last year).

The property sector is the main store of wealth for Chinese families and problems there cast a shadow over everything else. BYD share price fell to their lowest levels in a year due to a decline in EV sales after subsidies were cutback. At the same time, tech companies are fighting a fierce battle to win consumers over to their platforms by subsidizing their own products, with Alibaba committing a record RMB 3 billion to promote sales on its AI platform Qwen over the Lunar New Year period. As the BYD share price shows, subsidies are effective as a temporary Band-Aid, but do not solve the long-term issue.

Ironically, in the latest news the only silver lining is the silver economy—that is, old people. China’s largest private education company, New Oriental, announced that it is pivoting to providing education services to the elderly. Relying on 80-year-olds going back to school, however, is not necessarily a healthy way to build a long-term economy.