Property market on verge of crisis

"Einstürzende Neubauten" (New building collapses): under this headline borrowed from the legendary German industrial punk band, Handelsblatt warns of an imminent worldwide property crisis, which will be particularly damaging for banks that are heavily invested in the highly speculative industrial building market. The 5.4 billion dollars written off by investment bank Morgan Stanley are only the tip of the iceberg, reports the business daily. This market, which includes shopping centres, office space, and large scale building developments is worth 6,700 billion dollars in the United States. The subprime mortgage market, which triggered the crisis in 2007, was only worth 1,300 billion. "No one has acknowledged this danger," reports *Handelsblatt*, which also notes that European banks like Crédit Suisse and Deutsche Bank have major exposure in the industrial building sector.