杭州爛尾樓打碎業主的安居夢

In the video “The Casualties in China’s Economy,” also available in Chinese, Jonah M. Kessel reports on the social pressure that young people face to buy an apartment of their own, and what happens when those investments go wrong. Below, he describes the plight of those whose dreams of home ownership have gone awry.

在《中國的房地產經濟》(The Casualties in China’s Economy)這段視頻中，喬納·M·卡塞爾(Jonah M. Kessel)對年輕人面臨的買房壓力，以及投資失誤的後果進行了報道。他講述了那些買房夢破滅的人所處的困境。

On the fourth floor of an unfinished apartment building in the eastern Chinese city of Hangzhou, a man stands guard, looking down on the courtyard of the complex where he had thought his future home would be. It is his turn to keep an eye out for the developers who are said to have abandoned the project.

在中國東部城市杭州，一名男子在一座爛尾樓的四樓守衛着，俯視着小區的院子。他原以爲這裏就是未來的家，現在他卻需要提防據稱已經放棄該項目的開發商。

He and the other would-be residents take shifts guarding the area, sleeping in tents and in makeshift rooms. They are defending their protest signs, which they say the developers will tear down if they do not remain vigilant.

他和其他未來的住戶輪流守衛這片區域，他們睡在帳篷和臨時整理出的房間裏。他們這麼做是爲了保護自己的抗議標語。他們表示，如果不保持警惕，開發商就會撕毀這些標語。

“I bleed, I cry,” reads one banner, which is three stories high. “Give back my home, give back my money,” reads e occupying the space say that nearly 600 families had paid cash advances for apartments at the Xixi Moho complex. But then, they say, the developer sold their shares to another developer, who then sold the property to yet another. The building was never completed, and the families are now trapped in a state of residential and economic limbo.

一條三層樓高的豎幅標語寫道，“我流血，我落淚。”另一條標語則寫道，“還我房，還我錢。”駐守在這裏的人表示，約有600戶人家支付了現金，預購西溪Moho的公寓。但他們說，開發商後來將這個項目賣給了另一個開發商，後者又接着賣給了第三個開發商。公寓沒有建完。現在，業主的房子沒了，購房款也沒了。

“Many customers who borrowed money from banks are in trouble,” said Liu Cheng, an unemployed entrepreneur who invested in the project. “If they stop paying off their loan, they will bear legal responsibility from the bank. But what if they keep paying it? They still won’t get an apartment in the foreseeable future.”

“現在很多通過銀行貸款的業主很苦惱，”同樣對該項目進行了投資，目前處於無業狀態的企業家劉誠說。“一方面，他們如果斷供的話，他們要承擔銀行方面的法律責任。但是如果繼續交呢，這個房子遙遙無期。”

Mr. Liu said he invested in the property development because the price seemed reasonable.

劉誠說，他之所以投資這個房地產開發項目，是因爲價格似乎比較合理。

“But in the end, we lose both the apartment and our money,” he said. “And now? No one is taking responsibility.”

“後果就是，我們的業主購房款沒有了，房子也沒有了，”他說。“事情到這裏就變成了沒有人負責的一個局面。”

The situation at Xixi Moho is not uncommon in the area, the protesters say. Or elsewhere in China.

抗議者說，在這裏，像西溪Moho這樣的情況並不少見。中國其他地方也是如此。

Many real estate developers have financed projects by selling the bulk of the apartments before construction, borrowing from banks and then selling the rest of the apartments during construction. This works well when prices are rising, and it allows developers to earn huge rates of return on their investments.

許多地產開發商會在施工前出售大量公寓並從銀行貸款，從而爲工程籌集資金，然後再在施工期間出售剩下的公寓。當房價上漲時，這樣做很有效，而且開發商也能因此獲得極高的投資回報。

But the system breaks down when prices fall. After years of steady increases in housing values, prices have begun to decline, and some developers have run out of money before finishing the projects.

但房價下跌時，這個體系就會崩潰。房價經過多年的穩步提高，現在開始下降，有些開發商在工程竣工前就沒錢了。

Real estate projects accounted for 12.8 percent of China’s economic activity in October, according to the International Monetary Fund. If related activities such as making steel for beams or manufacturing sinks for bathrooms are included, that figure jumps to 33 percent. This means that even small price drops in the real estate sector can have considerable economic implications.

國際貨幣基金組織(International Monetary Fund)估計，今年10月，房地產項目在中國經濟活動中佔12.8％。如果把相關活動計算在內——如鍛造房樑所使用的鋼材、製造浴室使用的水槽——這個比例則會提高到33%。這意味着，哪怕房地產的價格出現輕微下跌，都會對經濟造成相當大的影響。