The woes of China's real estate market could be attributed to the hoarding of assets by leading property companies, according to one analysis by a prominent Chinese economist. Evergrande files for bankruptcy The debt woes of China's property sector have most recently culminated in a bankruptcy filing by one of the country's biggest real estate concerns. On 17 August, China Evergrande Group filed for Chapter 15 bankruptcy protection at a court in New York. The filing permits the protection of Evergrande's US assets as it continues to restructure its debts and negotiate with creditors. The move comes in the wake of protracted challenges for Evergrande during the Covid pandemic, including its suspension from trading in 2021. On 17 July, Evergrande released its performance results for 2021 and 2022, revealing losses of 686.219 billion yuan and 125.814 billion yuan respectively, for year-on-year declines of 235.02% and 26.63%.