"In the past, everyone always said, 'If you don't buy a house this year, you will be busy for another year'. I think the current situation is 'buying a house this year, and losing your wife and mother', and the delivery of real estate has been delayed again and again." A home buyer living in Xi'an Xiao Peng said.
More than a year ago, he participated in the lottery of a well-known "Internet celebrity property" in Xi'an, and was lucky enough to get a sought-after house. Unexpectedly, it was the beginning of a nightmare, because the real estate fell into the crisis of unfinished business.
Housing consumption is the largest consumption in most people's life, and it is also a very special consumption.
Since the pre-sale system is the mainstream model of commercial housing sales in my country, housing consumption is not "what you see is what you get". After paying one million yuan for housing, buyers often have to wait a year or two before they can get their houses.
Since the second half of 2021, due to the explosion of debts of some housing companies, the risk of delivery has continued to increase.
According to CRIC’s statistics, by the end of 2021, among its 24 key monitored cities, the total construction area of undelivered problem projects reached 24.68 million square meters, accounting for 10% of the total transaction area.
Relevant state departments have made a firm statement on the problems of guaranteeing delivery faced by the real estate market in many places. At the press conference on promoting the high-quality development of housing and urban and rural construction in February this year, Ni Hong, deputy minister of the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, said that it is necessary to resolutely and forcefully deal with individual cases. The real estate enterprises' overdue delivery risk of real estate projects caused by default of debts takes "guaranteeing the delivery of buildings, people's livelihood, and stability" as the primary goal, and safeguarding the legitimate rights and interests of the people who buy houses.
Xi'an "Thousand People Shaking Red Disk" Delivery Continues to Delay
A year and a half ago, Xiao Peng, a citizen of Xi'an, participated in a lottery for the "Internet Celebrity Market". In the competition of more than 2,000 people who voted for 224 suites, he was lucky enough to win, but now he feels hopeless.
At that time, the real estate that Xiao Peng purchased was blessed with many attractive titles: it was located in the hinterland of the Aerospace City, the highland of Xi'an's 100 billion technology industry, the first project of Zhengzhou's powerful real estate company Kangqiao Group in Shaanxi, and the red plate of thousands of people's lottery... Unexpectedly, From November 2021 onwards, the news of the shutdown of Xi'an Kangqiao Yuerong Garden has been continuously reported, and the original delivery date has been postponed again and again.
Back in December 2017, Xi'an Kangpai Real Estate Development Co., Ltd., a subsidiary of Kangqiao Group, a top 100 real estate company, won the commercial and residential land in Xi'an Aerospace City for 535 million yuan, with a floor price of 2308 yuan/square meter .
The real estate is planned to have a total of about 1,538 households. It will be sold to the outside world in 2018. The price is about 13,000 yuan / square meter.
Except for Building 13, which is scheduled to be handed over on August 30, 2022, the delivery time for the rest of the building will be around November 2021.
However, on November 24, 2021, Xi'an Kangpai Real Estate Development Co., Ltd. issued a delayed delivery announcement, saying that the delivery of buildings 6, 15, 16, and 17 would be postponed to April 30, 2022.
At that time, the owners recognized the developer's announcement of project extension. After the Lantern Festival in 2022, the real estate should resume work one after another, but the owners found that no one started construction in the Yuerongyuan Community of Kangqiao.
Xiao Peng told reporters that after inquiring from various parties, the owners learned that the developer was in arrears with the construction party and the construction party was ready to evacuate, so they hurriedly reported the situation to the housing construction department of the Xi'an Aerospace Base Management Committee.
Xiao Peng and other owners said that in February 2022, the local government's housing construction department, the owner's representative, and the developer's representative held talks. During this meeting, the owners learned that the project's pre-sale fund account was paid in April last year. It has been misappropriated by developers one day ago, and the remaining funds cannot support the subsequent resumption of work. The total investment of the project is 2.1 billion yuan.
Regarding the complaints of the owners, the relevant functional departments of Xi'an Aerospace Base said on the People's Daily Online message board that they had interviewed the development company, and the development company stated that it had been affected by the new coronavirus pneumonia epidemic, the 14th National Games and dust control, the epidemic situation and the Spring Festival schedule, etc. Multiple factors have resulted in two delays in the delivery date.
The functional department of Xi'an Aerospace Base has gone to the project site to investigate, to understand the progress of the project, the delayed delivery of houses, and the use of funds. The project is required to increase the progress of the project and ensure the delivery of the project. The estimated delivery time for this batch of houses is 2022. Before July 30.
Regarding the specific situation of the current resumption of work of the building, Xiao Peng told reporters that as of March 7, the bungalow area is being greened, but the high-rise building has not fully started. The developer only provided a work resumption plan, and there are scattered workers. to the construction site.
"Building No. 13 is still under construction as a whole. This building was originally scheduled to be delivered at the latest. Now the facade and fine decoration have not been done. We went to the construction site last weekend to find out. The person in charge of the construction said that the project payment was not in place, so Construction will not start, so we are very worried that Building 13 will not be delivered on time in the end.”
Thousands of owners of Nanchang's "super large market" cannot repossess the building
At the end of 2019, Wang Nan, who planned to settle down in Nanchang, used the down payment he had saved over the years to buy a house of more than 100 square meters in the second phase of Xinli City in Nanchang.
Xinli Real Estate is the largest local developer in Jiangxi Province, and Xinli City is a "super market" that is focused on building, next to the Yufeng Street Station of Nanchang Metro Line 4, which will be opened soon.
For this subway room, Wang Nan was full of expectations at the beginning.
In December last year, Nanchang Metro Line 4 was officially opened to traffic. Watching the trains whizzing past the building, Wang Nan was not happy at all, and his heart was full of bitterness.
In August last year, a "stop notice" was posted on a gate of the construction site. Then in September, the developer Xinli Real Estate was in debt, and many Xinli properties in Nanchang were suspended or closed for sale.
Originally, Wang Nan was supposed to close the building in November 2021, but now he feels that the delivery is far away.
In fact, the real estate has already acquired land and started construction more than three years ago.
In June 2018, two giant plots of land in Wangcheng New Town, Xinjian District, Nanchang began to be auctioned and listed, with a total land area of more than 500 mu.
These two parcels of land have excellent conditions. They are adjacent to the Yufeng Street Station of Nanchang Metro Line 4 under construction and Jiulong Lake New City. However, the conditions for the sale are a bit special, requiring developers to introduce new energy vehicle sales and service centers and unmanned vehicle driving test bases. etc. As a result, Xinli and Hengwang Consortium, a local real estate company in Jiangxi Province, acquired land at a reserve price without competitors.
At that time, the total land price was only 1.12 billion yuan, and the average floor price was only about 1,600 yuan per square meter.
Four months later, Nanchang Xinli City started sales, claiming to be a "city of 750,000 square meters of ideal life". The real estate sold very well at one time, with an average price of nearly 12,000 yuan/square meter. The price is 8,300 yuan/square meter. Wang Nan told Yicai that Xinli has added a decoration fee of about 3,000 yuan/square meter and requires buyers to bear it together.
Since 2020, the property has started to have problems.
In September of that year, the Natural Resources Bureau of Nanchang Xinjian District issued the "Idle Land Recognition Letter" to "Nanchang Xinsong Real Estate Development Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Nanchang Xinsong"), a project company under Xinli.
Nanchang Xinsong occupies 230 mu of the more than 500 mu of land. It was originally supposed to start construction on January 2, 2019, but until September 2020, only 10 mu of land was developed and constructed, and 220 mu of land was idle.
The nature of this land is commercial service. According to the original requirements, projects such as a new energy vehicle sales and service center, an unmanned vehicle driving test base and other projects should be introduced, and a commercial project that will be self-supporting for more than 10 years should be built.
A year later, the residential portion of the giant project also began to experience shutdowns.
On August 13, 2021, Chengdu Construction Engineering posted a "stop notice" on the gate of the third bid section of Nanchang Xinli City, which stated that the project had completed most of the workload and the completed output value was about 240 million yuan, but the developer only paid 1.4 billion yuan. 100 million yuan, arrears of 40 million yuan in project payment, and the supplier has stopped supplying.
Wang Nan told reporters that Xinli City involved more than 3,000 owners. Among them, the owners of the first batch of houses in the first phase have already repossessed the buildings, but they have not been able to get the production certificate, and the owners of the remaining batches have not yet waited for delivery.
The second batch of the first phase was originally scheduled to be delivered on September 30 last year, and the second phase was originally scheduled to be delivered on November 30 last year.
After communicating with developers and government departments, the owners found that Nanchang Xinli City was facing a huge funding gap, including 450 million yuan in construction costs and 550 million yuan in mortgage loans for subsequent production certificates, which required a total of 1 billion yuan. There are about 200 million yuan left in the fund supervision account.
In November last year, the Xinlicheng project announced the resumption of work with great fanfare, but Wang Nan and other owners told reporters that the actual situation was "thunder and rain," and only a few workers could be seen working on the site.
On February 22 this year, the Housing Security Center of the Xinjian District of Nanchang City responded to the owner that the Xinli City project is large in size, complicated in procedures, involves many construction units (119), insufficient funds, slow progress in resumption of work, and frequent dispatch by the district party committee and district government. , a special work class has been set up to coordinate every week. Last year, the special work class even rushed to the general contractor Chengdu Construction Engineering Headquarters to supervise the resumption of work.
After the Spring Festival, around how to innovate measures to force Xinli to raise funds to resume production and ensure delivery, and once again reported the severe situation of Xinli projects to the province and city.
At the end of the reply, it said: "Synchronously promote the negotiation with the construction unit on the resumption of work, and strive to deliver it as soon as possible."
Wang Nan said: "In fact, no one has been able to tell us clearly when thousands of home buyers will be delivered. Moreover, there are far more than one property in Nanchang that has stopped construction like ours. Based on the situation of my friends around me, all I know is There are four or five properties.”
"The house can be delivered" has become a selling point of real estate publicity
Housing is the largest expense in most people's lives.
In the past, most homebuyers worried about the quality of real estate after spending on housing. No one would have imagined that the actual delivery of a house that cost millions of yuan would become a problem.
Beginning in the second half of 2021, "the house can be delivered" has become a marketing selling point for some developers.
For example, the Longhu Yuguang City project in Ezhou, Hubei, has the slogan "Longfor Group is financially stable", while the New Beacon project in Hanyang District, Wuhan has the slogan "Evergrande stops work, we don't work".
This reflects the fact that due to the financial pressure of some housing companies, many projects across the country have experienced project stagnation to varying degrees.
For families who just need to buy a house, the huge loss caused by the unfinished property is unbearable, so the bottom line expectation of buying a house has dropped again and again, and it is a blessing to be able to deliver it.
The successive debt explosions and unfinished projects of real estate companies have caused a serious lack of confidence in the real estate market, and residents' expectations for home purchases have dropped to the bottom.
According to incomplete statistics from real estate research institute Craig, as of the end of 2021, in its 24 key monitoring cities, the total construction area of undelivered problem projects is about 24.68 million square meters, accounting for the proportion of the total transaction area of commercial housing in 2021 up to 10%.
Among them, projects in Zhengzhou, Changsha, Chongqing and Wuhan are at greater risk of delivery. The total construction area of the projects that have not yet been delivered exceeds 2 million square meters, and the total number of units exceeds 20,000.
Taking Zhengzhou as an example, as of the end of 2021, the total construction area of problem projects that have not yet been delivered is about 2.71 million square meters, accounting for 29% of the transaction area.
The total construction area of the problem projects that have not yet been delivered in Changsha is as high as 4.46 million square meters, accounting for 25%.
The official statement resolutely implements "guaranteing the handover of buildings and protecting people's livelihood"
Regarding the delivery problems in the real estate market, the relevant state departments have made a firm stand.
On February 24 this year, at the press conference held by the State Council Information Office to promote the high-quality development of housing and urban and rural construction, Ni Hong, deputy minister of the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, said that it is necessary to resolutely and forcefully deal with the overdue delivery risk of real estate projects caused by individual real estate companies due to debt defaults. , with the primary goal of "guaranteeing the delivery of buildings, people's livelihood, and stability", with the rule of law and marketization as the principle, compacting the main responsibility of the enterprise, implementing the management responsibility of the territorial government, maintaining social stability, and safeguarding the legitimate rights and interests of the people who buy houses.
In the cases of delayed delivery of real estate constructions interviewed by the reporter, the root causes of the problems are almost the same - the house price paid by the buyers during the pre-sale was misappropriated, resulting in a huge funding gap for the real estate, because the developer defaulted on the construction contractor The project funds eventually fell into unfinished business.
In February of this year, a nationwide policy on the supervision of pre-sale funds for commercial housing was introduced, which solved the long-term lack of supervision of pre-sale funds in some provinces and cities, filled up the supervision loopholes, and ensured the smooth delivery of projects under construction to the greatest extent. Provinces and cities have once again experienced a large-scale problem of unfinished buildings.
At the level of real estate companies, Evergrande and many other out-of-risk real estate companies have also stated that "guaranteeing and handing over buildings" is the core task of their current work.
From a more fundamental point of view, housing consumption is extremely special, and it is not a "what you see is what you get" consumption process.
my country implements the pre-sale system of commercial housing, and there is a long time difference from the purchase of housing to the final delivery by consumers, which hides certain risks.
According to CRIC's data, from 2005 to 2021, the proportion of off-plan housing sales nationwide rose from 57% to 87%, and the proportion of existing housing sales fell from 43% to 13%. That is to say, off-plan sales are the mainstream of commercial housing sales today. model.
During the National Two Sessions in 2022, many representatives and committee members have given suggestions or proposals on improving or canceling the pre-sale system of commercial housing.
These include Lu Tianxi, deputy to the National People's Congress, deputy chairman of the Jiangxi Provincial Committee of the Democratic Progressive Committee, director of the Housing and Urban-Rural Development Department of Jiangxi Province, Zhou Shihong, member of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference and vice chairman of the Anhui Provincial Committee of the Democratic Revolution, member of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, Sichuan Province Industry and Commerce Vice-Chairman Zhang Jianming, etc.
Zhou Shihong said that the debt crisis of real estate companies and the overdue delivery of commercial housing have had an impact on the majority of buyers, causing some buyers to be anxious.
It is also the third time that Zhang Jianming, a member of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, has proposed to cancel the pre-sale system of commercial housing during the National People's Congress.
Lu Tianxi, a representative of the National People's Congress, suggested adjusting the payment method for the purchase price, changing the one-time payment to the instalment payment by the purchaser according to the progress of the project.
(At the request of the interviewee, Xiao Peng and Wang Nan are pseudonyms in the text)