Some developers learned how to beat Ministry of Land and Resources' (MLR) supervision system, which relies on satellite images

"MLR's satellite can only scan one area at a time," said a lawyer familiar with the hoarding issue. Developers can find out "when they want to scan a city's land ahead of time. They
send out a few vehicles and pretend to dig. Once the satellites have
moved on, the vehicles are called back."

It's not a bad sign that prices are forcing some developers out of major cities, as the 'bubble' will deflate as it expands.

On the other hand, Beijing's incompetence as a regulator is a very bad sign. This is their biggest failure since a purported crackdown on inflation was followed by a record-high la....