I've seen a few neglected new-builds.. I'm thinking maybe the principles lost their financial backing or had bad market timing. These buildings will sit there until the time comes if someone wants to something with the land itself.
In Shenyang there was an attractive derelict building, unfinished sporting weeds & some trees along a river bank. I'm thinking one day someone will pony up the price. But it should be remembered that there is no annual property taxes on the building itself since property taxes are a one- time event on the purchase of the property lease. The underlying land is government owned. That lease cost was paid prior to the development built. So, the building sits there in all it's blemished beauty until it becomes something of value to somebody.
I'm scratching my head on Chinese homeliness. I've never seen a homeless Chinese person. The Chinese family structure is vertical... family members near unless migrants at work in distant cities. That's the forgiving & loving nature of Chinese family.
My wife tells me the most important issues now are unemployment because of the covid restrictions in place. There is no free money in China. I'm thinking this is strictly a XiJinping ploy relative to his anointment as 'emperor' this October. She says people are not working.. as in having no money. No mortgage pmts, no English lessons, no meat.. just vegetables to eat. But the constant Beijing shit news is Taiwan.
Something big happened a few years back. My wife's younger brother had interest in a rock quarry. It was lucrative with the infrastructure growth. But in a day or two, Beijing pulled the rug away. I'm thinking that Beijing saw that rural infrastructure needs were not worth the expenses pending whatever future tax receipts.
About a year ago or so, Beijing had ceded responsibility of land lease control to local governments. There was a lot of graft & corruption in China's massive construction builds the past umpteen years or so. Beijing could not keep up with overseeing their land lease sales. It makes sense that with land control ceded to the local governments would be much more effective administrating land leasing.
Again, same brother, after his hard rock quarry biz, he decided to build two greenhouses with living quarters, but without building permits, or the with the required land lease. The local authorities had his greenhouses seized, demolished, but brother was fortunately reimbursed for some of his costs. Maybe he has friends?
My wife's daughter has a rich boyfriend, drives a Bentley, family wealth + as a partner/ associate of a Beijing consortium. Same here.. construction without the land lease (but in this instance, the buildings were not destroyed as they were occupied). Boyfriend was arrested & released.. he even made an interim visit to Calgary Canada to see his sister. He walks free. Maybe he has friends too?
Local authorities have been too effective this past year. My wife's “Hukou” (sort of like a caste system.. city vs rural), hers a household registration in rural China that shows her as a permanent resident there for all her personal legalities. Now the household footprint, of course, had to be free of tax since occupied, but the local authorities deemed any adjacent land exterior of the doorstep or farmland (hers, 25 hectares) had to have an additional one- time tax event. We paid.
In China, the most important thing to remember is that family wealth is property, but rural China may be a problem on the affordability of private usage of their land if they cannot afford that one- time tax event. Most of rural China is poor. It will be interesting the on- going results of the effectiveness of local government regarding lease taxation.
I do think Beijing will somehow address the financial hit as a result of the pandemic. Most people here in the U.S. do not know the biggest banks by assets, are in the U.S. & China. The biggest bank in the world by is ICBC with +5tril$ in assets a couple years back. Today, I could only maybe guess what value.
Chinese real estate is a different ballpark.
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