A group of homebuyers has been waiting for a decade to live in the homes they’ve been paying mortgages on but were left unfinished to this day.
Despite no utilities, they moved into their unfinished apartments in Qingdao city, in the coastal province of Shandong, earlier this month.
“We just want to live in our own homes. We want to go home,” they told the Chinese language edition of The Epoch Times on May 11.
Construction Halted
Tongtai Mansion was on the market as an off-plan property in November 2013, and construction was projected to be completed on Oct. 30, 2015.However, the construction work stopped due to a financial dispute between the developer and the builder.
Lawsuits and auctions took place between 2017 and 2020. According to various Chinese media reports, the subsequent poor housing market and capital shortages rendered the project suspended to this day.
Homebuyers, desperate to move in, wanted to pay extra for the finishing touches of their apartments, but the local government turned down the offer.
The authorities weren’t helpful and didn’t intervene to push the developer and builder to resume construction, the homebuyers said.
On May 1, they took the matter into their own hands, and around 40 people decided to move into their unfinished units and brought in a few pieces of furniture—despite no water or electricity. Some painted the unfinished walls and installed plastic sheets on the windows.
Mr. Wang, a homeowner, said, “There’s no door, no window; we did the pavement on our own.”
His family occupied unit six in the first building at the entrance of the complex. Several families moved into the third, fourth, fifth, sixth, and eighth floors.
The next day, after the homeowners moved in, local authorities installed a gate at the entrance of the complex and dispatched police to get them out.
But the occupants refused to vacate the premises.
“We are farmers and workers with monthly mortgages of about 3,000 yuan to 4,000 yuan (about $430 to $570), and we are also paying rent,” Wang said.
He shared about his family’s financial hardship. “We have been cutting down on our food and daily expenses as much as possible.”
Ms. Liu and her husband bought a unit for their then-20-year-old son. She said: “It’s been 10 years; my son is now 30. He broke up with his fiancée because of this apartment. We’ve been through a lot.”
Mr. Li said some people bought the units for their elderly parents, but some have passed away.
He said a buyer in his 60s brought his 90-year-old mother to the site just a few days ago. She wondered if the apartment would be completed while she was still alive. “Many were moved to tears by her words,” Li said.
Ms. Liu tried negotiating with her bank to put a hold on the mortgage payments, but the bank would double the interest rate and late fees.
She said the homebuyers have no choice but to continue paying their mortgages and occupying their unfinished apartments is the only way to stand up for their rights.
The Epoch Times contacted the Housing and Urban-Rural Development Bureau in the Qingdao West Coast New Area district of Qindago for comment but did not receive a response as of press time.
Of the 290 unfinished projects, only 21.37 percent resumed full-scale construction, and 35.17 percent conducted intermittent construction as of the end of 2022.
