Villas grow grass as Chinese developer goes broke

HUNDREDS of villas have been left abandoned in one of China’s largest “ghost cities”.

The properties, which would have become luxurious homes in the city of Zhengzhou, have instead become overgrown with weeds. They were left partially finished after the developer, who ploughed 12 billion yuan (R24.3bn) into the project, ran out of money, according to People’s Daily Online.

Li Hai Group bought close to 1 000 mu (663 684m²) of land according to the report.

The original plan was to develop 397 villas, each offering at least 511m² of space, which would sell for as much as 14.7 million yuan. Eight of these were located by a lake and have been equipped with their own docks.

In a country where the majority of people lived in highrise flats, these homes would be considered particularly luxurious and spacious.

Between July 2013 and April 2014, the company managed to sell more than 200 of these properties to would-be home owners.

But, according to People’s Daily, various violations of regulations led to the project being blocked from construction several times by the local government.

Eventually, the developer ran out money and was forced to abort the project last year.

With no one to take over the costly project, hundreds of these homes, some close to completion and others still a shell, have been left to nature. – Daily Mail