In a recent exploration of Shenyang City, located in Northeast China, the stark reality of the country’s real estate crisis is brought to light through the lens of abandoned upscale housing projects. The footage reveals numerous unfinished compounds, including the state guest mansions by developer Greenland Group, which ceased construction several years ago despite a significant investment. This situation is symptomatic of broader issues within China’s property market, as developers like Greenland Group and China Evergrande Group face financial distress, leaving a multitude of pre-sold homes incomplete and buyers in a precarious state.
- Shenyang City, 400 miles northeast of Beijing, showcases the visible impact of China’s real estate woes, with abandoned luxury housing developments.
- Greenland Group’s state guest mansions project, which began in 2010 and halted years later, represents over $230 million in investment left idle.
- The housing crisis has been long in the making, with developers defaulting on debts and leaving projects like grand European-style mansions unfinished.
- Greenland Group’s halted project envisioned amenities such as a golf course and a hotel, but less than 5% of homes were sold before construction stopped.
- An estimated 20 million units of pre-sold but incomplete homes exist across China, leaving many households in a state of uncertainty.
- Greenland defaulted on over $400 million of international bonds, and even with the Shanghai government as a major shareholder, it could not avoid the property market’s turmoil.
- China’s largest residential property developer, China Evergrande Group, which has also ceased operations, epitomized the rapid growth of the real estate market’s influence on the economy.
- Evergrande left behind 800,000 unfinished homes, leading to homeowner protests and a bleak outlook for future construction completions.
- New home sales fell by 6% in 2023, dropping to levels last seen in 2016, with expectations for further decline in the coming years.
- The unreliability of real estate investments has become a significant concern for the Chinese population and poses a substantial challenge to the government.
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