Chinese Real Estate Issues...

[rogerluli]

Long ago my wife worked for a government company that wholesaled everything for restaurants in her Hunan hometown...She had a small apartment from the company in an old building...When the company was privatized she was able to buy the apartment for next to nothing...She had rented the place out for many years...This was one building of maybe 6 others and they were only 4 stories and had gotten quite decrepit...The only thing good about them was their location...They were right at the city center on a river...

 

Eventually the local government stepped in to redevelop the land...Renters were given the heave ho and owners were able to purchase units in the new development...They were credited with the size of their old units and had to only pay quite low prices for new ones...The old ones were like 50 m2 and the new ones were 100 m2 +...This was all started like 5 years ago now...The plan was for 2 32 story buildings with a few levels of parking and a few commercial levels on the lower floors...Ever since then the owners have been collecting a generous rent subsidy, even though few of them had actually been displaced...

 

Construction was painfully slow...I never visited over that time but it sounded like 2 guys and a wheelbarrow... But lo and behold they did actually get the job done...We had selected a 31st floor unit and had also paid for a parking space...Parking spaces were not cheap, I think it was around 25K US$, but it seemed that as car ownership had exploded in China in the intervening years there were far too few spaces available...

 

The wife was just there and was able to finally get the keys to her unit and was having renovation started and then... It seems that this local government entity had also sold these units to other folks as well... This happened to everybody who had the old apartments...So there are 2 sets of names on ownership papers for many/most units...What fun... All these folks are out protesting every day in front of the government offices...Placards, chants and the whole 9 yards of protest activities...

 

How will it all work out...I'm sure I have no idea... China,,,It's another country...

[amberjack1234]

You are right "China,,, is another country".

[Randy W]

Yes - no title companies in China. Once you "buy" the house at an agreed-upon price per square meter, they have 15 or 18 (I forget which) months to re-adjust the SIZE they are selling you (re-calculate public and private space), sell it to other prospective buyers, or even skip town if they're so inclined before they have to get the title to you.

 

Fortunately, ours went smoothly, with no snags, although some people had to cough up a few extra thousand when the size re-calibration sent them into a new bracket.

 

The parking space is a whole separate issue, of course.

 

Good luck - let us know,

 

It doesn't always end in disaster - Dinner for 15,000

 

or not - http://candleforlove.com/forums/topic/45352-from-yulin/?p=627191

[rogerluli]

We had that size adjustment issue in Hainan...The company gives out the size but then later the government folks show up and calculate the actual size per their criteria...But it wasn't a big difference...As I recall less than a 10 m2 difference in nearly 200 m2...

[Randy W]

We had that size adjustment issue in Hainan...The company gives out the size but then later the government folks show up and calculate the actual size per their criteria...But it wasn't a big difference...As I recall less than a 10 m2 difference in nearly 200 m2...

 

 

Well, that would account for the few thousand. Especially if someone got kicked into a higher tax bracket. As I understand it, they don't use the " + pp% above $nnnn dollars" tables here.

[Randy W]

Interestingly enough, the total construction cost for our apt building came to less than $1500USD/sqm