It's a thing everywhere but the issue is that there's just so much of it in China. I live in the US and you can get custom home built, but that segment of the market is the minority, as most homes are built then sold.
The problem emerges when the majority of your homes are sold before they are built, therefore if any defaults emerge, there is nothing to collect on. The practice isn't the problem, it's the sheer scale of the practice that's the problem.
Not only defaults. Most of the developers are also over leveraged and so in cases like Evergrande even without defaulting on the part of the borrower, the units may never be finished.
