The BBC reported on the 5th that China has had an excessive real estate boom, resulting in not only ghost apartments scattered throughout domestic cities, but also many ghost cities built by Chinese construction companies overseas.
The ghost town in question pointed out by the BBC is an apartment complex built in Malaysia by Country Garden (Chinese name: Byeokgyewon), once China’s largest real estate developer.
Under the name of ‘One Belt, One Road’, Country Garden built a large Chinese-style new city called ‘Linseong’ in Malaysia, where many Chinese live.
The company began construction of a large-scale new city worth $100 billion (approximately 131 trillion won) in 2016. Originally, the company planned to build a huge new city that could accommodate about 1 million people.
At that time, China was in the midst of a real estate development boom. Accordingly, Chinese real estate developers were able to raise funds relatively easily and built a large number of new cities not only in China but also overseas.
It was aimed at the demand of Chinese people wanting to own a second home overseas for leisure purposes rather than local demand in Malaysia.
But Corona changed everything. After the coronavirus, not only the domestic real estate market but also the overseas real estate market died.
A citizen who lived in Imseong said, “There were so many people that it felt like a ghost town,” and “I gave up part of my deposit and quickly rented a room.”
Country Garden planned to build not only apartments but also a golf course, water park, hotel, and office building here.
However, eight years later, only some apartment complexes have been completed and construction has been halted, making it resemble a ghost town.
This construction has only been completed 15% of what was originally planned, and the apartment occupancy rate is only 1%.
Country Garden was working on two construction projects in Melmurn and Sydney, not only in Malaysia but also in Australia. However, facing financial difficulties, Country Garden had to abandon both projects.
Country Garden carried out unreasonable construction both domestically and overseas, and ended up with a debt of 200 billion dollars (about 262 trillion won). Accordingly, the company is currently experiencing a default crisis.
The BBC reported that huge Chinese construction companies have created a large number of ghost cities not only domestically but also overseas.
Source: Donga
Mark Jones is a world traveler and journalist for News Rebeat. With a curious mind and a love of adventure, Mark brings a unique perspective to the latest global events and provides in-depth and thought-provoking coverage of the world at large.