This happened in Kunming City near Western Hills on August 27th. Touted as one of the largest residential demolition jobs in China.
Watch the dramatic footage here:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=gn1egrjMoD8
It only took 45 seconds to wipe out seven years of construction labor.
Apparently, the developer of Sunshine City II (Liyang Star City) ran out of money. The empty buildings stood unfinished for years. There are over 92 unfinished property projects in Kunming similar to this one.
The more reasonable course of action, imho, is for other land developers to negotiate a take-over of capital depleted residential complexes. The demolition of Liyang Star City phase II is resource wasteful, to say the least.
Unfinished constructions seem to be a reoccurring theme among debt-ridden developers as world investors await the unfolding of Evergrande's fallout.
Not long ago, President Xi stated that houses are intended for living, not speculation. This mantra aligns with Beijing's effort to distribute the wealth, and to lessen financial burdens for young families vying to start a family. Meanwhile, debt-fueled property development lendings have been reigned in.
In light of regulatory clampdown on bad debt and risky lending, colliding with pandemic uncertainties, property prices in Kunming and Yunnan as a whole have taken a considerable hit.
The silver lining is dip buying opportunities for those who are looking to own a home.
It's still too early to know what will happen. Next week the picture will be clearer. BTW they had to demolish those building and not allow another company to continue because a lot if not all of those building's foundation was found to be unstable because of the amount of time left vacant. The heavy rains we have been experiencing these past few years did a lot of damage. The smart thing to do was to demolish them. I heard that they are going to build smaller 'high rises/condos' on those lots.
evergrande is not lehmann in 2008 as if it is the state will kick in a bail out.the chinese state watching the enconmy with a very close eye as they can turn 180 degree in overnight if necessery. in this matter, they are flexiable.very.
morelikely, it is another bump on the road. and demolition jobs happens in liyang II is quite a insignificant action. if the project is profitable for other construction company, there would be a deal. but as above already stated out, the fundation has been heavy damaged, flat it might be just the right choice to be made.
China's domestic economy is so heavily based on urbanization, that even without financial difficulties like these of Evergrande, the road ahead in coming decades will be a rough ride.
Bumps like this on the road, now, will help China to prepare for the worse that is to come.
The perfect storm is forming. The pandemic, floods/weather, real estate bubble are a perfect recipe for disasters for China's growth. If they keep on stifling each sector(tech./edu./entertainment,travel) how can the economy grow? I wonder what will winter bring in terms of disasters.
@vetimo
Thanks for the video compilation link. Nice. Colossal waste of finance though.
On the note of wasted finance, good sign here is that safety of people was put before financial gains.
If the information is to be believed, the development was paused for so long that the foundation work for the houses was damaged - although I bet that some flaws in the original work contributed to putting it on hold in the first place.
In "old China" the construction would have probably went on anyway, and people could have ended up dying or losing their apartments due to unreported damages.
One less thing to cover up in coming years, by transparently blowing up the whole thing.
There are so many 'ghost cities' that have been sitting for so many years. They should demolish all those hi rises that have been idle for all these years. They are in decay and are a potential hazard.
those "ghost cities" has long been filled.
