Since the construction site was shut down, the owners have continued to defend their rights. This year is the sixth year for the owners to wait for the resumption of work. Picture of this article / provided by interviewee

  The Difficult Situation of Kunming's "Different Happy City"

  "China News Weekly" reporter / Huang Xiaoguang

  Published in the 958th issue of China News Weekly on August 3, 2020

  Mr. Mao, the owner of Lot 4 in Kunming's "Different Happiness City", laughs at himself as the "loneliest person" in Kunming.

  Not long ago, he and his wife moved out of the dark and damp basement and moved into the top floor of the bright and ventilated but dangerous unfinished building. "I bought a house on the 18th floor. I live in a more reliable place." There is no elevator in the unfinished building. The Maos spent nearly a month repairing stairs, sweeping corridors, installing doors and windows, and moving the wooden bed. Heavy furniture such as tables and chairs are carried to the 18th floor.

  Similar to Mr. Mao, in the past month or so, more than 30 families have moved into unfinished buildings in the "Different Happy City" due to unemployment, expiration of leases and other reasons. The unfinished building lacks water and electricity, does not have doors and windows. The owners rely on batteries and candles to light them, fetch water from the puddles on the construction site, cook in the shack, and live the life of an "urban Gypsy". Related life videos spread to the Internet, causing concern, and the owners became Internet celebrities overnight.

  There is a precedent in Kunming for owners to move into unfinished buildings. In May last year, five years after Kunming Chenggong Aochen Central Plaza was unfinished, hundreds of owners moved into unrenovated and unfinished buildings.

  This year is the sixth year of the unfinished "Different Happy City". In the face of more and more owners who are "rooted" in unfinished buildings, local street offices, police stations, property developers, and developers have posted notices requesting owners to move. From the unfinished building.

  The developer started from the demolition company

  Different Happiness City is located in the core area of ​​Wujiaba CBD in the southern urban area of ​​Kunming. It is an urban village reconstruction project in Shangmu Village, Guandu District. The project covers an area of ​​about 390 acres and involves 9 plots. Except for plot 9 which is public green space, the remaining 8 plots are residential or commercial land.

  "The No. 1, No. 2, and No. 3 plots have been completed and delivered, the No. 4 plot is unfinished, and the No. 5 plot was originally unfinished, but was later rescued by the owner successfully. No. 6, 7, and 8 plots have not been developed "Ms. Liu, the owner of Lot 4, told China News Weekly. There are 6 people in Ms. Liu's family and she originally lived in a house of more than 60 square meters. In order to improve the living conditions, in 2013, she sold a small for a big one and bought a 150-square-meter house in a different kind of Happy City at a price of 1.29 million yuan.

  The owner posted a notice at the entrance of Lot 4, asking the developer Li Liucun, who had never seen his face in the past few years, to respond to the owner's appeal.

  “Our house purchase contract was signed with Kunming Xiao’an Demolition and Relocation Management Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as Xiao’an Demolition and Relocation Company), but the developer of a different kind of Happy City usually refers to the outside as Kunming Jiadali Real Estate Development and Management Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as Jiada Lee Company), the two are actually one, the chairman is Li Liucun." Ms. Liu introduced. Public information shows that Jiadali Company was established in 2001 with a registered capital of 50 million yuan. It is a Kunming local real estate developer that started as an urban village reconstruction project. Before 2007, it had developed 3 urban village reconstruction projects with a total area of ​​less than More than 200 acres.

  However, since 2007, Jiadali has expanded rapidly. In just three years, it has successively won the real estate projects "Spring City Coast", "Different Blue Sky" and "Phoenix Dragon Court". The three projects occupy a total area of ​​more than 3000 acres. According to a person familiar with the real estate industry in Kunming, Jiadali, as a small developer with a short establishment time and insufficient strength, was able to win many large-scale real estate projects in a short period of time because of its strong government relationship. .

  "The real estate situation is not good, and the leverage is too long. Not to mention such private enterprises, even large real estate companies in Yunnan can hardly do such super-large projects." Zhou Dayan, director of the Real Estate Investment and Financing Research Center of Yunnan University of Finance and Economics, was interviewed by the media. It is believed that the aforementioned land acquisition behavior of Jiadali Company is equivalent to "snake swallowing elephants" and "problems are inevitable."

  In fact, since 2014, among the three real estate projects mentioned above, the Spring City Coast and Different Blue Sky have been suspended and unfinished, while the Phoenix Dragon Court has not yet started. According to a 2012 survey by "Yunnan Legal News", the different Blue Sky Urban Redevelopment Project started selling houses to the outside world as early as 2009 before the demolition; the developers used low-price group purchases to lure customers to buy houses. Prices have increased and the delivery time has been delayed repeatedly."

  "A different kind of blue sky is now a different kind of happy city." Ms. Liu said.

  More than 40 unfinished buildings were left after the "city building movement"

  In 2014, Ms. Liu bought a 150-square-meter suite on Lot 4 in Xingfucheng with a loan at a price of about 8,600 yuan per square meter. According to the house purchase contract, the developer should hand over the house on May 31, 2015. However, she found that after the Spring Festival in 2015, there was no more movement on the construction site.

  "At that time, I thought the workers were on holiday, and I didn't expect that they would not start work after the Chinese New Year." Ms. Liu, who sensed something was wrong, began to work with other owners to defend their rights. Later, the owners exchanged information and found that everyone bought the same building, but they were promised different dates for delivery. In addition, the owners, in accordance with the requirements of the developers, applied for loans from ICBC, China Construction Bank, China Everbright, Minsheng and other banks, and not all of the payments to the developers went to the supervision account designated by the construction department.

  “Our city adopts the entrusted bank supervision model. When applying for the pre-sale certificate for the different Happiness City project, the pre-sale supervision bank is the Beijing Road Sub-branch of Industrial and Commercial Bank of China. In April 2013, our bureau and the Beijing Road Sub-branch of Industrial and Commercial Bank of China signed the " "Commercial Housing Pre-sale Payment Entrustment Supervision Agreement", which entrusts Industrial and Commercial Bank of China Beijing Road Sub-branch as the pre-sale funds supervision bank, appoints a dedicated person to supervise the project’s pre-sale funds." August 25, 2018, Kunming Housing Construction In reply to an online message from the owner, the bureau revealed that “because Xiaoan Demolition Company refused to fulfill the agreement and failed to fully collect the pre-sale funds into the special supervision account, the project was suspended.”

  In May 2020, the owner, Ms. Zhang, took her grandchildren into the unfinished building.

  According to Ms. Liu's estimation, the No. 4 plot of Bianyang Xingfucheng involves 1255 suites in 12 buildings. Most of these houses have been sold, and the pre-sales amounted to more than 1 billion yuan. The funds were originally sufficient for the development of Lot 4, but many interviewed owners have heard that it was embezzled by developers to develop the Spring City Coast. In response to this statement, China News Weekly tried to consult a person in charge of the Jiadali company with the surname Li, but the other party did not respond.

  An owner left a message on the message board of the leaders of People’s Daily Online: “The Real Estate Management Law clarifies that the proceeds from the pre-sale must be used for the construction of the project, but the developer ignored the law and embezzled the funds to other projects, leading to the breakdown of funds. This is Serious violations of the law. The government and housing construction departments have supervisory responsibilities and are also responsible for this behavior." In the past few years, owners have frequently reported the situation to governments at all levels and housing construction departments. At one time, they were administratively suspected of disrupting the order of public places. detention.

  Hao Mao (pseudonym), a self-media person who has been paying attention to the real estate industry for a long time, believes that behind the unfinished end of a different kind of Happy City, there is a problem of inadequate supervision of real estate pre-sales. "In most parts of the country, the pre-sales of real estate are generally regulated. Only after the completion of the inspection and acceptance, the funds will all enter the developer's account to ensure the construction of the real estate project. Kunming is different, and their pre-sale supervision is almost non-existent. "Hao Mao wrote.

  In June this year, the Kunming Municipal Bureau of Housing and Urban-Rural Development announced that it would introduce the "Regulations on Pre-sale Funds for Commercial Housing", "to ensure the healthy and stable development of the real estate market, make a good real estate policy reserve, and prevent the occurrence of'unfinished'." Hao Maoxiang, "China News The Weekly said that the delay in the introduction of regulatory measures reflects Kunming's lack of slack in the supervision of pre-sales in the past. "The Kunming Municipal Government may not be so strict about this area because it wants to attract developers to develop."

  Hao Mao believes that in the early years of Kunming, due to the city building movement, the number of projects increased significantly, and some small and medium-sized real estate developers with weak strength have poured in. They encountered various risks in operation, environmental protection, political and business and other risks during the rapid expansion. The unfinished phenomenon paved the way.

  According to incomplete statistics, from 2014 to 2015, in addition to the other Happy City, a number of projects including Yunxi Jindi, Nanya Gate, Boiling City, Jinheng Fortune Plaza, Yufeng International, Aochen Center, Dayun City, etc. have joined The list of unfinished buildings; during the peak period, there were more than 40 unfinished projects on the Kunming market.

  In March of this year, the Yunnan Provincial Department of Housing and Urban-Rural Development issued the "Notice on Fully Cleaned and Renovated Unfinished Buildings", requiring the housing and construction departments of all cities and cities to find out the bottom line and the real situation before April 30, 2020; formulate practical and feasible disposal work Plan to ensure that all "unfinished and remaining problems" in the province are cleared.

  "China News Weekly" asked a staff member of the Yunnan Provincial Department of Housing and Urban-Rural Development with the surname Zhou to inquire about this. The other party did not disclose the specific data of the unfinished buildings, but mentioned that other happy cities have been counted.

  Regarding the reasons for the unfinished end of the No. 4 land project in Different Xingfucheng, Jiadali Company explained in the letter of commitment to the owner: “The real estate market has been in a downward trend since the second half of 2014. Our company has also encountered market risks and capital Turnover is difficult.” However, in a notice posted on the unfinished building in June this year, Xiao’an Demolition Company blamed the construction party for the cause of the unfinished building: “Because the construction party violated the contract and stopped work maliciously, the project construction It has stagnated and has not been able to deliver the house so far. It is now entering the judicial process. The two levels of government in Guandu District of Kunming City have coordinated and resumed work many times in recent years, and there has been no substantial progress."

  The owner Mr. Duan mentioned that under the joint prosecution of the owners, some of the unsold buildings in the No. 4 Lot of Different Xingfu City were sealed up. After being sealed up, the developers continued to sell the buildings. "This year I also received a house selling call, telling me that there are existing houses for sale at low prices in Happy City," said Mr. Duan.

  The owners who live in the unfinished building open up wasteland in front of the building to grow vegetables, cook together, and live a "Gypsy" life.

  The government and developers want owners to "help themselves"

  "We have checked the handling plans of many other provinces, and the experience of handling is probably to have one policy on the first floor." said the aforementioned staff of the Yunnan Provincial Department of Housing and Urban-Rural Development. Among them, the introduction of enterprises is the most common means to revitalize unfinished buildings. A 2018 statistics show that in the past few years, a total of 44 unfinished projects in Kunming have been merged and revitalized by powerful real estate companies such as Country Garden, Poly, Junfa, and Vanke.

  Facing the unfinished problem of a different kind of Happy City, the local government has also tried similar efforts. On August 31, 2018, the Kunming Municipal Government stated in response to relevant questions from the owner on the message board of the People’s Daily Online, “The developer Xiao’an Company and Poly Real Estate have jointly developed plots 6 and 7 and have returned part of the funds... The government requires companies to set up special funds accounts to be supervised by the District Urban Reform Bureau, and urge the companies to return all funds to be used for project closing work.” The Urban Renewal and Reconstruction Bureau of Guandu District, Kunming City also said in a related reply: “Recently, Xinda Company , Poly Company intends to cooperate with Xiao'an Company to develop the project. After the cooperation, the existing problems of the 4th and 5th plots of the project and the follow-up problems of the entire project will be solved."

  Regarding the introduction of Poly real estate, Mr. Duan, the owner, learned from Poly at that time: "Poly did intend to take over the offer, but the first talk with the government and the developer fell apart." One year later, Guandu District closed the streets. When replying to the owner, the office no longer mentioned Poly Real Estate: "It is actively coordinating several large real estate companies and Jiadali Company for taking over negotiations."

  "Some unfinished cases involve law and litigation, and the relationship between creditor's rights and debts is complicated, and it is particularly troublesome to deal with them. Therefore, the remediation of each project takes months or even years. The government's role in this is mainly to build a platform. , Adjust the policy, do some work of threading and threading.” The staff member surnamed Zhou explained.

  While the government was looking for an acceptor, the owner of Lot 5 in Different Happiness City embarked on the path of self-help. According to earlier media reports, the delivery time of the No. 5 plot contract was December 2015, but work has continued to be suspended since it was capped; from 2015 to 2018, the owner raised funds for self-help many times, and finally a different Xingfucheng No. 5 plot The block barely met the conditions for occupancy, and some owners were able to hand in their houses. Some commentators said that Plot No. 5 of Different Xingfu City is Kunming's first typical case of self-help real estate.

  "Self-help is also a method we advocate. The fundamental reason for the unfinished property is that the capital chain is broken. In this case, instead of taking the money to rent a house, it is better to pool the money to help yourself." The aforementioned staff member Zhou told reporters Mentioned.

  The self-rescue plan is now placed in front of the owners of the No. 4 plot of Happiness City. On June 15 this year, the Guanshang Sub-district Office of Guandu District convened the representatives of the owners, the Xiaoan Demolition Company, etc., to study the self-rescue issues of the owners of the No. 4 plot of Xingfucheng. On June 19, Xiao’an Demolition Company posted a notice in the unfinished building: “The company also hopes to work with you to actively find ways to work together to achieve an early resumption of work, and to promote the resumption of work and work with reference to the self-rescue model of the No. 5 block of Happy City. Handing over the house.” The Rixin Community Neighborhood Committee of the Guanshang Sub-district Office also mentioned in a notice posted on the same day: “Please build up confidence, work together, and start the self-rescue process as soon as possible.”

  Unbuilt buildings lacking protection, the higher the floor, the more dangerous, but most owners still choose to live in the houses they bought. The picture shows Ms. Zhang in the corridor. Her family lives in Room 601 of Building 6.

  The owners then received a questionnaire asking whether they agreed to save themselves and the amount of expenses they could raise and bear. "Plot No. 5 is a group purchase by the Air Force and a statistical unit of the province. The owner has a stable income. In contrast, our retail investors have spent all their savings on buying a house, and we don't have much money. We can only collect 10 million yuan." The owner, Ms. Liu, estimates that although the main building of the No. 4 block has been completed, only about one-fourth of the project has been completed, and at least 80 million yuan will be needed for the later project.

  The owner, Mr. Duan, questioned the self-rescue plan: “The government and developers have done nothing in the past years. If they really want to save the unfinished buildings, they must first find out what assets are available to the developer; Evaluate the project quantity and give a plan instead of asking the owner how much it can afford."

  Regarding the previous work done by the government and the feasibility of the self-rescue plan, the reporter called Zhao Kun, the executive deputy head of the Guandu District Government of Kunming City and the executive deputy head of the Stability and Development Coordination Leading Group of the Different Happiness City Project. As of press time, reply received. The person in charge of the Propaganda Department of the Guandu District Committee responded: “Now the district committee and the government have conducted special studies, but the specific work is not easy to disclose to the outside world. The main consideration is that it will affect the next step of disposal.”

  With no hope for unfinished properties, more than 30 owners have moved into unfinished buildings in the past month or so. They open up wasteland to grow vegetables on the construction site, cook together, and keep warm. Because of the long shutdown, the basement of the real estate was flooded and water dripped on the ground. Many owners have fallen. The steel bars in the building are exposed everywhere, and stairs, balconies, elevator shafts, etc. lack protection, and there are obvious safety hazards. In mid-June, local street offices, police stations, developers and properties posted notices asking them to move out of unfinished buildings.

  In the past few years, Mr. Mao, the owner, went to the government and relevant departments to defend his rights twice a week. "Now that we are tired and don't want to make trouble, let us live in our own unfinished building." Mr. Mao sighed.

  China News Weekly, Issue 28, 2020

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