Sober Reality for Beijing's Olympic Building Binge

WONG:
The Los Angeles Times reports that at least 20 per cent of Beijings 500 million square feet of commercial real estate built since 2006, is either vacant or nearly so.

The scale of pre-Olympic building broke all world records, thrusting Beijing into the architectural limelight. But now, six months after the Games have ended, many of the buildings that sparkle in the night lights are hauntingly empty come daylight.

There are almost no long-term economic benefits expected from the buildings.

The Birds Nest national stadium, for example, costs $9 million a year to maintain, but with only one scheduled event in 2009, the nest will probably become a shopping mall.

With no private ownership of land in China and a lack of government supervision in the real estate industry, pre-Olympic developers ignored the mass market and built only for the luxury market.

Most of the real estate has been financed by Chinese banks that have not written down the loans. But when they are finally forced to, a trickle down effect is expected throughout the economy.

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[lsteer100]

has the bird's nest stadium in beijing been demolished????

[SeeYouNextFall]

And all of those people homes torn down without payment was done for nothing.

May the Chinese communist government rot in hell !