Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2019/05/03/10-7pct-of-housing-stock.html
…
2 Likes
Looks like rural communities were selling off property to developers en mass until the government stepped in to make banks focus their money elsewhere. Until till then “half of new loans issued by China’s big six banks last year went to individual property buyers.” So, now there are empty homes or vacant properties just sitting there.
So rural communities are no longer making money from property sales. The Chinese Dream™ fizzled and stalled in rural China and people are looking for income opportunities elsewhere.
7 Likes
Note that this doesn’t include the millions of homes razed to make room for urban and industrial development. I’ve seen entire stereotypical brick villages one year replaced by concrete high-rises the next.
Something else to note is that the government owns all land and many of the structures. Remember something about China being socialist? When you hear about buying or selling apartments in China, it’s really a long term sublease of sorts. The original lease is usually 70 years. So any place you buy has an expiration date of sorts. There is a hope and expectation that the government will convert these leases to ownership in the future.
A side effect is that local governments own and control these homes. If they aren’t selling either because there are no buyers, or likely in many cases, waiting for the value to go up.
5 Likes
Not to mention the ghost towns in urban areas.
4 Likes
Israel is still socialist.
Airbnb expansion opportunity?
They may end up being really useful for climage refugees.
1 Like
This topic was automatically closed after 5 days. New replies are no longer allowed.
