SHENYANG, Liaoning: Cattle wander between the concrete shells of half-finished mansions in northeastern China, some of the only occupants of a luxury complex whose crumbling verandas and overgrown arches are stark symbols of a housing market crippled by its own excess.
Property giant Greenland Group broke ground on the development nestled in the hills around Shenyang, an industrial city of 9 million, in 2010 – when the real estate sector’s lightning growth was in full swing.
But around two years later, the State Guest Mansions project – lavishly planned as 260 European-style villas complete with swanky facilities for visitors of the provincial government – was abandoned.
Local farmers now plough land that was envisaged as manicured gardens for the wealthy and politically connected, while feral dogs patrol crudely built poultry pens and double garages crammed with hay bales and farm equipment.
The reasons for the project’s failure remain unclear, though locals have their suspicions.
“Frankly, it was because of official corruption,” a farmer named Guo told AFP as he dug for edible weeds beneath a creaking 10-metre-high metal fence screening the development from a nearby highway.
“They cut off the funding and cracked down on uncontrolled developments, so it was left half-finished,” the swarthy 45-year-old said, as other people carried off buckets of water from the complex’s artificial lake.
Source: CNA
