China’s Troubled Property Market Has Global Investors On Edge

Former UBS Group AG economist Jonathan Anderson once called it “the most important sector in the universe.”

More than a decade on, Chinese property is again grabbing the attention of global investors — this time for all the wrong reasons.

Mounting signs of stress this week in an industry that accounts for about a quarter of the world’s second-largest economy are roiling China’s credit markets, dragging down the nation’s bank stocks and pummeling commodities from iron ore to copper.

After a burst of optimism earlier this year that looser regulatory curbs might stem the industry’s debt crisis, investors are getting …