Long Read: Will China’s Latest Policy Call-to-Arms Turn the Ailing Property Market Around?

The government hopes to end the slump by studying policies to reduce the record vacant housing overhang, earning cheers from foreign investors and buoying share markets

Every move taken by China to tackle its property crisis, now in its fourth year having weighed on economic growth and pushing more developers into a deepening liquidity crunch, has been scrutinized by global investors in the world’s second-largest economy.

They parse the nuances of the language in every government statement, trying to determine whether the measures go far enough to end the slump, which contributed to China’s benchmark CSI 300 Index and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index ranking as the world’s worst performers last year.