Inside a Chinese Ghost Town of Abandoned Mansions | WSJ

China’s property crisis is expected to get worse as sales of new homes plummet and indebted developers struggle to find funds to complete projects. Real estate giant Evergrande was recently forced to liquidate as more than 50 housing developers have defaulted on their debts in recent years.

WSJ’s Jonathan Cheng travels to an abandoned “ghost town” in Shenyang City built by the Greenland Group to explain how China’s real-estate slump has become a headache for the government.

Chapters:
0:00 Empty homes in China
0:30 The Greenland Group
1:19 Inside an abandoned showroom
2:43 Inside a home
3:33 China Evergrande Group
4:28 What’s next?

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#China #RealEstate #WSJ

[temper]

Property troubles alone, this site would be incredible for shooting apocalypse or future sci fi movies in.

[Johnrl]

So crazy to think that people who would want mansions like this would also want a bunch of others super close to them like that.

[hdjcctq]

A huge waste of natural resources - sand to make concrete, copper for wiring, lumber, etc.

[VerycoolEsso]

Never pre-order games, never pre-order houses

[mrxiong]

What a waste of resource of materials and labor.

[dreamsreality]

Nothing like having a mansion opening your window and giving your neighbor a high five.

[matthewsaunders]

If I remember right from 60minutes, those 20 million people who pre-purchased an unfinished home totals $1 trillion lost

[biznatchHo]

I was in Shenyang last week and they said a lot of the developers build on the land without getting the permit first and then later had to abandon the project due to the land not being safe to build on

[JustAnotherDayToday]

Weird—really weird to see rows of mega mansions like suburban bungalows.

[badluck]

What kind of rich person wants an identical mansion?

[TheRange]

Man those are beautiful shells of mansions. It's a shame they never completed the project.

[bradskis]

OMG this explains it all! I travel into a few big cities in china for work quite often. Going from the airports into the cities, I have seen so many half built, but appearing to be abandoned housing complexes that never seemed to make any progress or have people working on them. It’s those exact apartment towers in the video and they’re all like that.

[Super_Mario_Esq]

You failed to mention the most important thing: Those who bought the house have already taken out the entire mortgage and paid it to the developer in the beginning of the project. Now even when the developer bankrupted, they still have to pay what the owe to the bank. That is, they will continue paying their debt for 20, 30 years without the hope of having a livable house. If they stop paying the mortgage, according to China's law on "social credit", they are banned from many things, including buying airplane tickets or high-speed rail tickets.



The 2nd part to this story: So, for those who can't afford a mortgage and a rent at the same time, there have been numerous reports that some of them choose to move in to the newly bought, unfinished apartment unit in a skyscraper, without elevator, electricity, water, some don't even have windows, and live there for years.

[v.m.]

This is a terrifying example of ruined land.

[DigitalIslandboy]

WOW they could house the millions of homeless Americans in the USA.

[RmnGnzlz]

But why would you buy a house before its constructed? Here in México there's people you hire to check for structural problems from the foundation to the ceiling, including everything in between like the water pipes and electrical wires when buying a house. Buying a house before being able to see it is bananas.

[Premaloveeverywhere]

I lived in Beijing in 2010 and we would go and play in an enormous abandoned building next to ikea, it was magical. Great acoustics.

[futuramanut]

I'm still surprised it is/was considered normal to pay mortgage on unfinished housing in China

[blightedgrounds]

Such an awfully grim design.
Those mansions are built right on top of each other.
No personality, no yard, no garden, no space, no fence, no privacy.

[sardu]

Fine reporting. Nice to see people taking more than the old LCD approach.