Hundreds of Billions Rot in China’s Abandoned Villas! Homeless Live Free, $1M Homes Unsold at $100K

I hit the jackpot. I found this whole stretch of villas in Guangdong. No need to go to work. No rent, no water bills, no electricity bills. There's a lake right next door. Look at this huge area. They're all villas. There are so many, I could never stay in them all. 兄弟们,好起来了呀! Guys, things are looking up. I found a whole development of large, unfinished villas here in Guangdong. No rent, no water, no electricity. There's no pressure just getting through the day. I cook for myself and spend less than five yuan a day. I can clear some land down below and grow vegetables. Life really couldn't be better. Any of you guys want to come? Anyone with nowhere to go can come here. Oh, this villa is really hot, but the inside is pretty good. Oh, it's really hot in this villa, but it's pretty nice inside. Let me show you. Look how much I'm sweating. It's so hot and stuffy. There's no airflow from any side, and there's no running water or electricity inside. Come take a look. We cooked here today. That's the food the other guy bought. This villa is pretty nice. It really has everything. This is a good setup. Life is getting better. It really is. Let me show you where I'm staying. It's not bad. Look, this is my room. I slept up here last night. The room across it is pretty good too. That's where the other guy stays. The homeless woman in the video has taken shelter in Wangu Manor, Shenzhen's largest unfinished villa development. It is in Buji Sub-district and has more than 750,000 square feet of floor space. Nestled along the Jigong Mountain Range in Yinhu Mountain County Park, it has an artificial lake and is surrounded by lush wooded hills with both mountains and water close by. The development has more than 300 luxury villas. Generally priced at around 5 million to 15 million yuan each, it has been abandoned for more than 20 years and now resembles a ghost town. This grand development has become a place for homeless people and those with low incomes to take shelter. This is China's largest Largest unfinished villa development and the biggest wasted opportunity. If it had been completed, any one of these homes would have cost several million yuan, or even more than 10 million yuan. But before construction could finish, the owner ran out of funding and fled abroad. Now, more than a thousand detached villas, each covering over 53,800 square feet, stand packed together, abandoned here. They've become a gathering place for homeless people. If you're traveling alone to Fujian, stay away from this place. Its name alone might give you a fright. It's called Fujian Ghost Town. It's 5 in the afternoon right now, and it already feels chilly and eerie here. At night, there is hardly anyone on the streets, and even the parking lot has barely any cars. Look at these villas. They're surrounded by weeds now, but when they first went on sale, each one cost more than 22 million yuan. A lot of people bought them back then, but for some reason, they were abandoned. This is the Guian New World Villa development in Fuzhou, Fujian province. Developed by Century Golden Resource Group around 2011, the large project covers over 1,200 acres, with European-style villas lining the river. More than a thousand homes were snapped up in the early stages, but limited amenities, poor transportation access, and a large share of investors rather than people buying homes to live in led to widespread vacancies. Weeds now cover entire sections and windows are broken. It has been called Fujian's largest unfinished villa development. As China's property boom fades, unfinished villa developments have become a common sight across the country. Many homeless people who have struggled to find work for years choose to live in them. Although abandoned, these are still villa developments and their interiors can be quite nice. That has made them a haven for homeless people. I found this huge development of villas with luxury interiors. No rent, no water bills, no electricity bills. For electricity here, we use the battery from an electric scooter. It's really nice. Look at that fancy traditional style decor. Any of you guys who want to come are welcome. There are dozens of villas here. We grow some vegetables ourselves and spend less than five yuan a day. I found dozens of villas here in Guangdong. Look, dozens of them. All around us. Front, back, and on both sides. Let me take you inside the one I'm staying in. It's finished and ready Ready to move into. There's a sofa and bedding, everything. Look at this. Wow, my goodness. We cook our own meals here every day. This stove works really well. That big round table must cost at least 360,000 yuan. There's so much good stuff here. Plenty of sofas and chairs. The sun is too strong at midday, so we'll cook here in a bit. They told us to clean up and we did, but this floor never seems clean no matter how much we sweep. There's no water here. There's a big wooden tub too. See it? So what if I don't own a home? I'll find an abandoned building and live in seclusion. Anyone want to join me? Hi everyone, I'm XiaoHui. I picked up dozens of other people's Hi, everyone. I'm Xiao Hui. I found dozens of ocean view villas that nobody wants. Guys, they're worth hundreds of millions of yuan. My goodness, look at this, guys. The ocean is right in front of us. What an amazing view. Look. All these luxury villas have been abandoned. What a waste. From the southeastern coast to the southwestern interior, and from the north China plain to the waterways of the lower Yangtze region, unfinished villa developments have left stark scars on urban development. There is an unfinished seaside villa development tucked away at the far end of Haikou's west coast. From the air, you can see dozens of villas in neat rows. Their frames and roofs are complete, but years of rain have weathered them back. Weeds grow taller than a person, trees obstruct the buildings, and wild birds keep calling. It's eerie enough to send a chill down your spine. The ocean is right outside. The Yingbing Peninsula to the west, outside the city, and completed villa developments nearby. The setting is hard to fault. If these homes had been completed and sold as planned, they would surely have fetched high prices. The developer legally acquired the land in 2002 and planned to invest 1 billion yuan in a resort in 2009. All the paperwork was in order, yet a Shanghai court froze the land in 2018. While it was frozen, the land, along with the villas already built on it, was transferred to another company without the developer's knowledge. In effect, the same land was sold twice. The dispute over land use rights remains unresolved. Legally acquired land has been divided up, and a huge investment in construction could be lost. These oceanfront villas have become blackened ruins, and the question of who will pay remains. Who has such a big hand? Only 10 billion. Someone invested 10 billion yuan in this huge stretch of mountain view villas deep in the mountains of Wenzhou Zhejiang. That's an enormous investment. They're said to have been abandoned for more than 10 years. From the drone, you can see weeds growing throughout the development. Nobody lives here. It's completely deserted. The main structures are finished, and even the exterior walls are done, yet they were abandoned just as they were nearing completion. These are China's largest and most beautiful unfinished villas at the Xiangshan Yacht Club in Xiamen. Total investment was 700 million yuan. Land reclaimed from the sea for construction alone covers about 2.7 million square feet. A total of 150 villas were built over the water, with plans for nearly 1,000 yacht moorings. It was supposed to become Asia's largest yacht marina, but the good times didn't last. Now the villas are abandoned and the marina has been taken over at a low price. It's such a shame to see a project this big left unfinished by the sea. The Xiangshan Yacht Club was a landmark tourism project for Xiamen and Fujian province. The video shows that almost all the villas were built over the water with beautiful surroundings and sweeping views. This high-end complex combined recreation, fitness, tourism, offices, and shopping. It was designated a key municipal project in Xiamen and attracted countless investors when it launched. Yet it, too, was left unfinished. Weeds and trees grow unchecked, with nobody maintaining the grounds. Not a single person can be seen on the roads inside. Behind the project's decline is a massive debt burden amounting to billions of yuan, hundreds of millions of US dollars. Even the major developers could not resolve it and gave up after 10 years of development. I found a large development of abandoned luxury villas beside Yangcheng Lake in Suzhou. They stand right beside this beautiful lake in a prime location with wonderful fresh air. From above, you can see that the main structures of all the villas are complete. These are huge detached homes, each with its own entrance and thousands of square feet of space. Any one of them is worth at least a million yuan. Yet, they're overgrown with weeds and have sat abandoned for years with nobody interested. I don't know what happened here. All these villas were built and then simply abandoned. Nearly 2 billion yuan was invested in a castle-style resort in Shajiafang, Changshu, Jiangsu. Plans included European-style castles, more than 100 luxury villas, and a hot spring resort center. Activity suddenly died down around 2015. Asking prices for individual homes plunged from a peak of 7 million yuan to 500,000 yuan, but still attracted no interest. Weeds now cover the site and the building's facades are weathered by the region's mist and rain. The Yanming Lake No. 1 project in Zhongmu, Henan has about a mile of lakefront and was once promoted as a premier resort community in China's central plains. Since construction stalled in 2015, wild reeds and weeds have engulfed more than 100 roughly built villas. It has become known as the largest unfinished villa development in the central plains. The Tianlu Villa development in Kunming, Yunnan, tells a similarly troubling story. When sales opened, prices reached about 1,860,000 yuan per square foot, more than three times the price of ordinary homes in Kunming at the time. Today, windows are broken, doors are rotting, and weeds cover the grounds. It has become a deserted ghost town in the mountains. Owners have waited 10 years and still cannot obtain their property ownership certificates. An abandoned villa development in Shen Yun, Liaoning has sat empty for more than 20 years. At night, nobody dares go within a few miles of it. It is in the well-known Qipanshan scenic area. The homes stand in neat rows, with both detached villas and townhouses. Seen from a distance, they resemble a vast cemetery. The project was meant to become Shen Yun's largest wealthy residential enclave, with a total investment of 3 billion yuan. In 2003, just as the outer structures were completed and landscaping and roadwork were about to begin, construction was suddenly halted. Overnight, 500 workers faced unemployment. It ultimately became Liaoning's largest abandoned unoccupied villa development. Let me show you the villa area in Huizhou. Let me show you this villa development in Huizhou, Guangdong. The villas are packed together. But the vacancy rate is extremely high. More than 90% are sitting empty. Does anyone know where this is? In Guangdong, Huizhou, I found dozens of abandoned seascape villas. I found dozens of abandoned ocean view villas in Huizhou, Guangdong. Their exteriors are finished and some even have private swimming pools. Yet nobody dares to live in them. Now weeds are growing everywhere and the place is deserted. I don't know what happened here. Such nice villas, all left abandoned. What a shame. Some unusually designed projects are striking in their own right. On a steep cliff east of Yangzong Lake in Yunnan, a row of small buildings with red roofs and yellow walls is visible from far away. It looks like a mountain resort. Up close though, the doorways and windows are empty, and weeds block the entrances. This is Changchang Coast. It has been unfinished for years. People online call it the most dangerous unfinished development because its position on the cliff is frightening in and itself. The land was acquired in 2007 and the project covers about 395 acres. It was meant to become one of Yunnan's leading resort communities, complete with an 18-hole golf course, a five-star hotel, and vacation villas. Now, only rows of empty homes remain. The danger is real. The villas were built almost against the cliff with Yanzong Lake below and loose rocky slopes beneath them. Yunnan is geologically active, and landslides and mudslides are common. Building so many villas here created obvious risks. Nobody has maintained the building since construction stopped. Part of the retaining structure along the cliff has collapsed, and muddy water runs along the base of the walls when it rains. Villagers take detours to avoid the site. Some say that if it collapses, They would not be surprised to see people and buildings fall into the lake together. The developer poured 2 billion yuan into the project, marketing its direct lake views and rare cliffside location. But that calculation accounted for the scenery, while overlooking ecology and safety. Years later, the doorways and windows remain empty, tiles have fallen off the exterior walls, living rooms are covered in dust, and a roughly 330-foot cliff lies just beyond the balconies. Window frames rattle in the wind, leaving the buildings like ghostly shells suspended in the air. These luxury ruins scattered across China reflect both developers' reckless decisions and deeper problems with the industry's business model. The burden on society is immense. Buyers' rights have been seriously violated, and financial losses and a lack of ways to seek redress have become common problems. These unfinished villa developments across the country share striking similarities. Their locations are much alike. Most sit in scenic areas far from city centers. Beside lakes, along the coast, or among wooded mountains. The Shajia Bang project is next to Yangcheng Lake. Feiligang was built along the Dong River. Yanming Lake No. 1 has its own stretch of lakefront, while the Kunming Project occupies hills beside Dianchi Lake. All share a lack of infrastructure and amenities from the outset, or a failure to provide them later. Locations tens of miles from the main urban area are common. The homes themselves are also very similar. Large villas in low-density developments are standard, and almost all target the high-end vacation or retirement market. From Xia Jiabeng's European-style castles to Yanming's lakeside mansions and from Kunming's mountain villas to Weizhou's river-view courtyard homes, the designs lack innovation and are badly out of step with mainstream demand. The development histories follow a remarkably similar pattern. Aggressive land purchases, high-profile promotion, weak sales, a funding collapse, and construction grinding to a halt. This sequence has played out at project after project. Developers build on expectations of rising in land values rather than real housing demand, without a clear understanding of how limited and uncertain their target market was. Their outcomes have also converged. Most have been stalled for years, with deteriorating buildings and overgrown Xia Jiabeng's castle-style buildings have become a popular photo spot on social media. Reeds surround the villas at Yanming Lake. The Kunming Project has become a place to graze sheep, and moss covers the villa walls at Moshan Lake. These projects have become local scars that are difficult to resolve. Beyond these empty, abandoned, and unfinished villa developments, many other unfinished buildings remain across China. What you're seeing here is Xu Jiayin's largest unfinished project in Huizhou District. Huangshan, Anhui, Evergrande's crown of beauty development. It covers about 87 acres with a total investment of 6.5 billion yuan. The plan was to build a large destination for extended stays, wellness, and retirement, combining star-rated hotels, wellness apartments, and a shopping street. The location is excellent, not far from Huangshan North Railway Station with Huizhou's mountains and waterways behind it. It was meant to serve visitors coming to Huangshan but funding ran out midway through construction and work stopped. Now all that remains is a series of unfinished building frames with weeds covering the site. A promising development in a beautiful setting has become a ghost town. It's such a shame. The Guangyao Feiligang project in Huizhou, Guangdong, has been unfinished for 12 years. Marketed as a high-end riverview community, it has a planned door area of about 3.2 million square feet, including high-rises and villas. Construction stopped in 2014, when the developer's funding collapsed. The main structures of some villas and high-rises were completed, but the overall development remains unfinished. Thousands of buyers in Hong Kong and Shenzhen have been affected. Rough estimates by Shaojin Bo, director of the Hong Kong Federation of Trade Unions, Huizhou Center, and leaders of several Hong Kong buyers' rights groups, put the number of affected Hong Kong residents at more than 200. The scale of China's unfinished housing problem is enormous. Bloomberg Intelligence reported in August 2024 that at least 48 million pre-sold homes in China remained unfinished, based on pre-sales data from 2015 through the first half of 2024. That exceeded Germany's entire housing stock in 2021. In other words, the equivalent of all the homes in the mid-sized European country was frozen in a half-built state. Multiple media outlets cited Bloomberg's report as evidence of how difficult China's property crisis would be to resolve. Several factors explain how these unfinished developments came about. At the heart of the problem is China's long-standing pre-sale system, combined with a development model built on heavy borrowing. First, pre-sales shift risk onto buyers before homes are built. Developers can sell homes off plans once the foundations or main structures reach a certain stage. Buyers make down payments and take out mortgages, sending large sums into developers' accounts In theory, that money should be reserved for construction of the specific project. In practice, oversight has long been lax, and funds are often diverted to buying new land, repaying old debts, or supporting other projects. If later sales weaken or financing dries up, construction on the original project stops immediately. Second, heavy borrowing and rapid turnover create hidden risks. Over the past decade, Major developers have generally kept operating by borrowing to repay old debts and collecting money from pre-sales. Debt levels were extremely high and cash flow depended heavily on continued home sales and rising land values. The three red lines policy introduced in 2020 limited further borrowing. Sales then fell, expectations for home prices weakened, and developers quickly ran out of funding. Giants such as Evergrande and Country Garden fell into crisis one after another, while smaller and mid-sized developers collapsed in large numbers. Third. Market demand and local government incentives are both misaligned. Many projects are in remote locations and target high-end buyers, especially villa developments. Despite limited demand from people who actually want to live there, local governments rely on land sales for revenue and welcome developers buying more land and building quickly. When excess supply meets shrinking demand, sales weaken and construction stops. The pandemic's impact and falling household income expectations compounded these problems, causing them to erupt altogether. The result is that buyers have paid for homes and are still repaying loans, but construction remains unfinished. Developers go bankrupt or disappear, builders and material suppliers go unpaid, and banks face rising bad loans. Homebuyers have become the most vulnerable link in this chain of risk. China's economy continues to weaken, with pay cuts and unemployment spreading widely. Combined with heavy mortgage payments, these pressures have left many families struggling to get by. Sharp declines in home prices have become a broad trend. In many cities, prices have fallen by half or even much more. Yet, no matter how far prices fall, the mortgage debt owed to banks does not shrink by a single yuan. And even more troubling situation faces the owners of those 48 million unfinished homes. They have already made their down payments and continue paying their monthly mortgages, while their homes remain indefinitely as steel and concrete shells. Some have waited 5, 7, or even 10 years without receiving their keys. Their payments are covering developers funding failures, diverted money, and gaps in oversight rather than delivering them homes of their own. The home is gone, but the loan remains. The home they dreamed of is an empty shell. To this day, the Chinese government remains unwilling to promise a financial backstop for buyers of of Unfinished Homes.