The time to avoid a bubble was a while back.

The problem with bubbles is there's no staying still with them. It's exponential growth or .. exponential decline.

My guess is they'll make a desperate effort to "reflate" things to avoid that scary exponential decline part. We'll see what happens.

Thanks, was wondering if this was good or bad news!

There is no telling just yet! The Chinese property has been heavily inflated for a few years already, propped up with extensive government intervention and perverse incentives for local administrations to drive up land prices. There is no telling yet if this decline is

a) real (government-issued numbers are one thing, reality is another);

b) driven by the policies (or just the bubble bursting);

c) permanent. It may be a spike caused by the timing of a measure, or a financing roll-over, or whatever.