news

한어Русский языкEnglishFrançaisIndonesianSanskrit日本語DeutschPortuguêsΕλληνικάespañolItalianoSuomalainenLatina

text and pictures丨li he

editor: sydney wang

in this family, the topic of house always makes quarrels imminent. husband li kai put all the misfortunes caused by buying a house on his wife zhang lan, "it is because of you that our family is so poor." it was indeed zhang lan who made the decision to buy a house, but she could not have predicted the problems with the house. thinking of this, she felt wronged and justified, "this is the developer's fault. i am also a victim."

"that's because you're trying to save money." - the victim-blaming theory left zhang lan speechless for a moment.

no one could have imagined that the house would be left unfinished.

zhang lan bought this house five years ago at a price of more than 4,000 yuan per square meter in shengfang town, bazhou city, langfang, hebei province, where she worked. after paying a down payment of 260,000 yuan and waiting to receive the house, she received the news that "the community you bought does not have all five real estate certificates and occupies industrial land."

the next development of the story made zhang lan feel extremely absurd. after searching online, she found that the house she bought was illegally built twice. the developer had built a community on the land, but it was demolished in 2018. "that is to say, after the house was demolished, they built another community on the original site."

zhang lan is not the only victim of this scam. over the years, homebuyers and developers have been engaged in a tug-of-war - people have constantly reported the case, the authorities have issued law enforcement documents many times, and even the hebei provincial party committee inspection team has supervised the case, but this second illegal construction of small property rights project has remained intact.

some people therefore believe that not only home buyers, but even local governments are "trapped" by developers.

small property rights in small towns

although it is just a town in bazhou, shengfang town is relatively economically developed because it is located in the center of the beijing-tianjin-hebei triangle. it has the largest furniture industry cluster in northern china, and metal and glass furniture is the town's pillar industry. local court statistics show that "shengfang town's gdp accounts for 23% of bazhou city."

zhang lan has been working in bazhou for many years. she has long planned to buy a house, but the housing prices here are out of her reach.

as a small city about 100 kilometers from beijing, the local real estate market has been booming since 2014 when china fortune land development developed "peacock city, the new capital of hot springs" in bazhou and sold houses to beijing. around 2018, the average price of many real estate projects in bazhou exceeded 10,000 yuan, and the price per square meter of some real estate projects was even close to 20,000 yuan.

zhang lan first noticed "fangqing hecheng" in november 2019. she clearly remembers that the advertisement of the property at that time said that the average opening price was 4,200 yuan. although the housing prices in bazhou had fallen overall at that time, this price was still half lower than most properties in the city. this was also a price that zhang lan could get by just standing on tiptoe.

what fangqinghe city looks like now

the community is in a good location. going east for 2.2 kilometers, you will reach shengfang town people's government. this community, which has been illegally built twice, consists of high-rise buildings and villa areas. the two high-rise buildings are 17 stories high, with a total of four units and about 200 households.

attracted by the low price, zhang lan walked into the sales office. the sales office was not big and looked like a real estate agency. the salesperson smiled and told her that the houses in the community were large-scale property rights, and the price was cheap only because they were pre-sale properties. "once they are built, they will not be so cheap anymore."

at that time, the slogan "so close, so beautiful, go to hebei on the weekend" had just come out. small cities around beijing were competing to build beijing's "back garden" and working hard to tell good stories about their products. houses wrapped in gorgeous coats seemed very popular.

zhang lan remembered that the project was indeed under construction at the time, and the main structure of the rows of villas had been completed. she chose a high-rise residential building with an area of ​​127.85 square meters, three bedrooms and two living rooms, and a total price of 520,000 yuan, or 4,067.3 yuan per square meter.

according to the developer's requirements, half of the down payment, 260,000 yuan, had to be paid first. after returning home, zhang lan discussed it with her husband. li kai felt that the house was too cheap and the price was abnormal, so he didn't want to buy it. but zhang lan wanted her own house too much, "my children need to go to school, so i can't always rent a house." so she took out all the savings in her family and borrowed some money to pay the down payment.

on november 5, 2019, langfang hengtai real estate development co., ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "hengtai company"), the developer of "fangqing hecheng", signed a "house purchase and sale contract" with zhang lan. according to the agreement, the house will be delivered before august 31, 2020. if the house cannot be delivered due to policy-related suspension of work, force majeure and other factors, the delivery time will be postponed for 3 months.

contract between developer and home buyer

shortly after buying the house, zhang lan suddenly received a call from the salesperson, "the developer does not have all five certificates, you should cancel the contract immediately." she rushed to the site and found that the construction work was almost at a standstill. after searching online and finding out that the community was being rebuilt on the site of the demolished illegal building, zhang lan became even more panicked. during that period, whenever she had time, she would go to the construction site to take a look.

the project was delayed in starting, and the person who had previously advised her to cancel the contract also resigned soon after.

when she went to the sales office again in march 2020, there was only a young man named zhang jun left, who claimed to be the developer's nephew. zhang lan proposed that she no longer wanted the house and wanted a refund. zhang jun disagreed at first, saying that the agreed delivery date had not yet arrived and a refund would be considered a breach of contract. zhang lan said that the project was illegal in the first place and she was being cheated, so even if it was a breach of contract, it was understandable.

after many negotiations, zhang jun agreed to refund the money, but he had to deduct a penalty of 10% of the total house price. zhang lan agreed.

on april 9, 2020, the developer asked zhang lan to sign a "return application form". it did not mention that the project was illegal, but only stated that zhang lan returned the house for "personal reasons". according to the agreement to deduct 10% of the total house price, the developer should return 208,000 yuan and promised to return the money before june 9, 2020.

when the agreed time came, zhang lan did not get a refund. she went back and forth to the developer, but the developer kept delaying the refund. in 2021, the developer said, “we can only refund you after we have money after the delivery of building no. 1 on may 1st (2021).” when that time came, the money was still not refunded. from 2022 to 2023, the developer kept saying that they had no money, and finally they didn’t even want to give a reason.

as of 2024, zhang lan said, she still had not received a refund.

"i was stuck in a dead end. i went to him, but he had no money." zhang lan said that she thought about suing him, but others told her that even if she resorted to the law, she might not get the money.

fangqinghecheng was a new community built on the original site after it was demolished.

this statement is not groundless. wang lei, a northwester who fell into the same housing scam as zhang lan, tried to take legal action.

soon after he paid the down payment of more than 160,000 yuan, the salesperson told him on wechat that the house was neither a large-property nor a small-property house, but a "new residential building" that did not require the five certificates and would be directly issued a property title later. "the new residential building is neither a commercial house nor a small-property house. its land is directly approved by the local government and the developer is responsible for its construction. there is no land acquisition cost, so the price will be lower than that of commercial houses."

wang lei didn't believe this. after consulting, he learned that if it was a new residential building, it could only be sold to locals, not outsiders. he went to the salesperson to negotiate a refund, but was quickly blocked. so wang lei filed a lawsuit against the developer in court.

on september 7, 2021, the court ruled that the developer should pay wang lei 20,000 yuan per month from the date of the judgment until the down payment was paid. however, after the developer paid for four months, the remaining nearly 90,000 yuan was delayed.

demolition and reconstruction on the original site

earlier, "fangqinghecheng" was another name.

according to official information, the project covers an area of ​​more than 20 acres, and the land occupier is the factory building of hebei shunxin metal products co., ltd. (referred to as shunxin company, legal representative zhang shun). the factory stopped production due to environmental issues and has been idle for many years. it is industrial land.

in fact, there is something fishy about the origin of this land.

in may 2005, xinhua news agency published a report titled "strange thing: "dead" enterprise is still selling state-owned assets", saying that this piece of land was originally state-owned enterprise land. more than a year after the state-owned enterprise was cancelled in 2001, in march 2002, the original factory leaders "signed a transfer agreement with a person named zhang shun in the name of the original enterprise for a price of 1.56 million yuan" and sold the northern part of the northern factory area at a low price. regarding the "low price sale", the original xinhua news agency report said, "the northern factory area sold after the enterprise was cancelled was appraised at 2.6 million yuan by the bazhou city price office in may 2000. the price of local land use rights continued to rise, but two years later it was sold at a low price of 1.56 million yuan." several factory leaders were punished for this matter.

but the buyer zhang shun did not seem to be affected much, and the land remained in his hands.

at the end of 2017, someone quietly started real estate development on this land that had been idle for many years. at that time, the 9th inspection team of the hebei provincial party committee was inspecting bazhou (december 13, 2017 to january 21, 2018). during the inspection, the developer did not make much progress. after the inspection in march 2018, the land became completely lively.

according to the developer's plan, the project will build three 17-story residential buildings and more than 30 villas. the project is named "xi yue mansion".

one background that needs to be mentioned is that when the provincial party committee inspection team gave feedback on the inspection to bazhou, it pointed out that bazhou "is not resolute enough in implementing the state's strict planning and land policies" and "there are suspected cases of approving the development of villa-type real estate in violation of regulations."

but at that time, the public did not know what these two sentences meant. as for the land, the surrounding residents thought that its nature had been changed and sold. it was not until the administrative law enforcement department visited frequently that everyone realized that the project was illegal.

multiple authoritative sources have proven that the bazhou government has been paying attention to this matter for a long time. on may 5, 2018, the bazhou city urban management administrative law enforcement bureau issued a "stop work notice" to the project, stating that it violated relevant laws: "after research and decision by the director's office meeting of our bureau, we now order you (the unit) to immediately stop construction and wait for processing."

but the developer did not stop construction. on august 10, 2018, the bazhou city urban management administrative law enforcement bureau once again issued a "stop work notice" to the project, but the developer still ignored it.

on august 28, 2018, the bazhou municipal party committee publicly issued a notice on the rectification of the inspection. regarding the aforementioned land and villa issues, "intensify the demolition of illegal construction" and "ensure that no more 'villa-like' projects will appear." among them, there is also a rectification information that is particularly conspicuous, "there is one illegal industrial land spot with an area of ​​29.99 acres. the relevant townships and relevant departments are urging them to make rectifications in place."

a local official revealed, "this is referring to 'xiyue mansion.' and it is precisely because of the supervision of the inspection team that the punishment was so severe in the later period."

on september 27, the bazhou municipal bureau of land and resources issued an administrative penalty decision to zhang shun, the legal representative of shunxin company, stating that he had violated relevant laws and regulations by "using state-owned land for 24.9105 mu without the approval of the land and resources management department and not in accordance with the approved purpose", and ordered zhang shun to return the land within 15 days and fined him 249,105 yuan. however, zhang shun not only did not stop construction, but also quickly built high-rise residential buildings and villas, and sold houses to the public.

the developer's reckless behavior eventually led to the demolition of "xi yue mansion".

the first residential area built was deemed illegal

on october 1, 2018, the official website of the bazhou municipal government published an article titled "shengfang town actively carries out centralized rectification of small property rights housing", stating that "in accordance with the city's work arrangements, on the morning of september 29, shengfang town organized housing management, construction, urban management, land, public security, power supply and other departments to carry out joint law enforcement actions to conduct a centralized cleanup and rectification of small property rights housing projects throughout the town... for new projects such as xiyue mansion that have been illegally developed and constructed, compulsory demolition measures will be taken in accordance with the law."

officials took swift action. at about 7 a.m. on october 10, in accordance with the deployment of relevant departments, the bazhou city urban management bureau and other relevant departments, the two committees of shengfang town, as well as the local public security, fire, traffic police, power supply, hospital, demolition company and other relevant units dispatched 270 people, driving more than 40 law enforcement vehicles and 6 large mechanical vehicles to "xiyue mansion" for demolition.

the scene after the first demolition (photo provided by the interviewee)

after four hours of operation, one of the above-ground construction parts of "xiyue mansion" was completely demolished, and two foundation excavations were completely backfilled, with a demolition area of ​​5,600 square meters. but for some unknown reason, the main body of the villa built in the project was preserved.

on october 11, 2018, the official website of the bazhou municipal people's government published an article titled "the municipal urban management bureau and multiple departments lawfully demolished a small property house in shengfang town", stating that "the xiyue mansion project was demolished in accordance with the law in the first batch of demolition tasks for small property houses in shengfang town." local people called this action "bazhou's first demolition."

for those who are not concerned, this is a very satisfying action. but for the owners who bought the house, it means that they need to start a long process of defending their rights. one owner revealed that when they found the developer, the developer said that they had no money to compensate and could only build the community and then use the new house as collateral.

no one believed the developer. "it's already been demolished, so it's still illegal to rebuild. how is that possible?"

to everyone’s surprise, the developer actually “fulfilled” their promise – after the main part of “xiyue mansion” was demolished, they not only did not return the land as required by the land bureau, but after a short break, they started a second construction and renamed it “fangqinghecheng” to continue selling. some people who didn’t get the house the first time got it this time.

after the first illegal building was demolished, the local official website released information

at the same time, many new entrants like zhang lan have bought houses on this land.

he bing is also a newcomer. on april 7, 2019, he signed a purchase contract with the developer for a total price of more than 433,000 yuan, with a down payment of 220,000 yuan. in the contract, he bought room 1-2-902 in the "fangqing hecheng" community.

just as he was waiting for the house to be delivered, law enforcement authorities began investigating and punishing the developer's second illegal construction.

according to information obtained by phoenix weekly, in late april 2019, law enforcement officers in shengfang town discovered workers repairing a construction crane at the construction site during their routine inspection. the law enforcement officers stopped them and listed the construction site as a key supervision target, conducting inspections twice a day and "immediately stopping any construction activities found."

on april 30, may 11, may 27, june 6, and july 22, 2019, the shengfang town government organized the construction, land, urban management, power supply and other functional departments to go to the project site to read out the suspension notice. but the project has not stopped, and even in september, it was sold again. zhang lan, wang lei and others bought the house in september.

he bing, who entered the game early, sued the developer later. while ruling to return the money, the bazhou city people's court clearly pointed out that "the defendant company provided false housing information when contacting the plaintiff and did not inform the plaintiff that the property was a small-property house and the five certificates were incomplete."

this means that "fangqinghecheng" is not a so-called "new residential area" but is essentially an illegal project.

tug of war

the tug-of-war continues. in addition to homebuyers, residents in the surrounding area also frequently call the 12345 mayor hotline to report the project. they say that "fangqinghecheng" affects their right to light and privacy, "they block the sunlight, and the house is dark during the day"; others say that the buildings are too close and their privacy can be easily seen.

in a report obtained by the reporter, the number of people involved in the report was as high as 97.

officials also seem to be putting pressure on the project. according to the materials of shengfang town government, at the beginning of the second construction of the project, they issued the "bazhou city urban management administrative law enforcement bureau construction project inspection notice" and "bazhou city urban management administrative law enforcement bureau suspension notice" for the third time on may 29, 2020; on june 15, law enforcement personnel sealed the illegal construction of the project and related equipment such as the meter box; on june 25, the town government held a leadership office meeting to conduct a special study on the later supervision of the project; on june 29, the main leaders of the town government led the team to coordinate the construction, urban management, planning, land, electricity and other relevant departments to take the measure of cutting off power again to force it to stop construction; on the afternoon of june 30, the high-voltage power lines used in the construction site were cut off, and all construction equipment was completely stopped; in early august, the town set up a special working leading group for small property rights housing, with the main leaders of the town government as the group leader, and inspected and supervised the construction site every day.

on september 16, 2020, the shengfang town government reported to relevant departments that the construction site in question was "completely shut down." as for how long the shutdown lasted, phoenix weekly reporters did not have specific information.

but what is certain is that on june 21, 2021, the comprehensive administrative law enforcement team of shengfang town once again issued a "notice of demolition of illegal buildings" for the project; on june 24, the law enforcement team clearly stated in issuing the "notice of demolition of illegal buildings" that "it intends to make a decision to demolish it within 7 days"; in early july, the law enforcement team issued an "administrative forced demolition notice", stating that it would demolish it within 5 days of receiving the notice.

when the project is illegally built for the second time, the law enforcement department will issue a demolition reminder

after a series of demolition notices were issued, "fangqinghecheng" still stood firm.

during this period, residents in the surrounding area continued to report online. for example, on june 29, 2020, someone left a message on the "sunshine governance" of hebei news network, reflecting that the project in question "is illegally constructed every day." on february 8, 2021, the bazhou law enforcement bureau replied with one sentence, "this case is under the jurisdiction of the shengfang town government of bazhou city." the reporter waited 223 days from the message to the reply. on february 21, 2021, someone left a message to the secretary of the hebei provincial party committee on the leadership message board of people's daily. five months later, on july 23, the langfang municipal party committee replied that the secretary of the provincial party committee attached great importance to the issue and "required us to verify and handle it seriously. after investigation, shengfang town currently insists on daily routine inspections of the construction site, and the construction site is now in a state of suspension."

regarding the right to daylight, the shengfang town government once stated in a document, "after investigation, the reported problem does not match the facts. the south side of the building is a bungalow factory area, the east side is baichuan home community, the west side is milan yaju community, and the north side is the developer's own commercial office building. there is no problem of blocking daylight."

the residents had no choice but to continue complaining. from the replies, they vaguely discovered the change in the official attitude - in the past few years, the replies were very firm, saying that more than one demolition notice had been issued. in 2023, when someone left a message on the "sunshine governance" of hebei news network to complain, the shengfang town government's reply became, "after coordination with the town government, xiyue mansion is speeding up the procedures."

“is the consequence of a project being illegal just to go through the formalities again?” a whistleblower could not understand.

the 11th inspection team of the hebei provincial committee conducted another inspection of bazhong from october 15 to december 15, 2023. as for the inspection results, no information can be found through public channels for the time being.

although it was found to be illegal, the project still stands

on january 3, 2024, a resident named wang hai submitted an information disclosure request to the shengfang town government, hoping to learn more about the illegality of the project. on january 26, the shengfang town government responded to wang hai, admitting that the project was illegal, "and on may 29, 2020, the bazhou city urban management administrative law enforcement bureau issued a "notice of suspension of construction", and then issued the "notice of demolition of illegal buildings" and "decision on demolition of illegal buildings" in turn."

"what this means is that the illegal facts exist and the authorities have made the decision to demolish it, but it cannot be demolished," said wang hai.

even not long ago, someone bought a house there. on may 6, cai qing, a resident of hengshui, bought a 119.28-square-meter house in the "fangqing hecheng" community for a total price of 420,000 yuan. the 36 villas next to the high-rise buildings were also in demand. on the glass of the first floor of some villas, there were advertisements for sale of "villas available now" with mobile phone numbers.

"there is only one villa left." after the reporter contacted the developer as a buyer, the middle-aged man told him that he also asked his nephew zhang jun to show the reporter the house. zhang jun made it clear that "this is a small property right, there is no certificate, that is, only our company will issue it to you. each household has a certificate, and our land has a certificate for the whole." he also admitted that "it occupies industrial land."

"kidnap"

the long tug-of-war has gradually divided the owners into two camps: some decided to continue to defend their rights and report; more people felt that "it doesn't matter whether there is a certificate or not, there is no loan anyway, as long as i can live in and have a home."

the community seems to have met the conditions for occupancy - the developer plans to build three 17-story residential buildings, two of which have been built. they are not only connected to water, electricity, gas, etc., but also equipped with elevators. there are two elevators and four households on each floor. the first floor is a garage, and various surrounding facilities are also complete. an agent revealed that the occupancy rate was 80% last year and reached more than 90% this year. she admitted that the project did not have the "five certificates" and guaranteed that the property certificate could be issued.

"who cares about property rights? as long as i have a house to live in, it's fine." a resident who has already moved in said that he knew it was a limited property right when he bought the house. "what can i do? i don't have money, so i'm kidnapped by reality." he also knew that many people were fooled by developers into buying houses. "they also want the developer to apply for a property rights certificate, which is wishful thinking. it's an illegal project in the first place. if they want to apply for a certificate, won't the bosses of the legitimate developers have objections?"

only one building in the project is under construction

some people often see developers in the community. despite constant reports and government follow-ups, there is nothing unusual about them on the surface. the unusualness is more reflected on the internet. according to tianyancha information, both shunxin company, which once obtained the land, and hengtai company, the developer, have been involved in many judicial cases. among them, shunxin company has become a dishonest debtor 20 times, and currently has 19 consumption restriction orders; hengtai company also has several execution information. the cases involving the two companies include private lending disputes, loan contract disputes, and house sales contract disputes.

"what's the point of exposing it? the law enforcement department will just issue a bunch of illegal building notices, and they will definitely not demolish it." most people no longer believe in documents, let alone the media. according to them, the first demolition was because no one had moved in at the time, so it was easier to demolish. "now that there are so many people living there, how can we demolish it? what will we do after the demolition? where will they live? to put it bluntly, the government has been kidnapped by the developers."

regarding the problems existing in the "fangqing hecheng" community, a relevant staff member of shengfang town told the reporter of phoenix weekly that he would reply after understanding the detailed situation.

after experiencing the house purchase scam, zhang lan still failed to own a house of her own. she lives in a rental house, and has not yet paid off the money she scraped together to buy a house. occasionally, she still passes by the "fangqing hecheng" community. everything in the community is normal, except for building no. 3, which is located at the innermost part. the construction was stopped after only the seventh floor. the front of the building is overgrown with weeds, and the construction equipment is rusty and there is no sign of resuming work.

usually no one passes by here, as if it doesn't exist.

(at the request of the interviewees, all interviewees in this article are pseudonyms)