Saddled with US$300,000 in debt and with his unit nowhere near completion, the 34-year-old decided he had had enough and stopped making mortgage payments.
The builder says in a notice this week that it had managed to release some frozen funds, adding that it expects to complete the Wuhan project in late 2022. As financially stressed firms halt construction on projects, “those risks have dramatically materialised”.“I thought it would never happen,” a Wuhan homebuyer surnamed Hu says of his unfinished home.
Xue’s family put down 800,000 yuan for the flat while he took on a 600,000 yuan loan that he has been repaying for two years.Homebuyers in around 100 cities – involving more than 300 housing projects – have boycotted mortgage payments, according to a crowdsourced document named “WeNeedHome”. Many are in central Henan’s provincial capital Zhengzhou, where authorities have set up a fund to help developers complete projects.Other affected cities include Chongqing and Changsha.