The terrifying reality of abandoned real estate projects

Developers bid up land prices, then mortgage the land for loans, collect presale proceeds and construction deposits, and seamlessly mortgage the unfinished buildings as well. Under the presale system, the moment developers take in money, they are already fully spent with no revenue coming in—if sales prospects look bleak, the rational choice is to grab what they can and flee.

When a project goes unfinished, four classes of creditors emerge: investors (usurious lenders), banks, contractors, and homebuyers.

Once the developer's cash chain snaps, creditors move in fast. The efficient ones seize assets outright. Slower movers accept properties from the developer in lieu of payment. Some creditors disguise themselves and become homebuyers. Others perfect their mortgages. Some file lawsuits directly.

Contractors, unable to collect their payments, are forced to halt work. During the suspension, some workers desperate to recover their wages climb the tower cranes at the construction site and threaten to jump.

Banks are far from idle. Holding mortgage rights on both the land and the unfinished buildings, they begin foreclosing through the courts.

By the time homebuyers realize what's happening, too much time has slipped away. They finally understand that their apartments will never be completed and that handover will never come.

Homebuyers learn about the developer's broken cash chain later than contractors, and they lag far behind in both organizational capacity and action speed.

(Homebuyers have almost no recourse—stopping mortgage payments lands them on the bank's blacklist, and going to court is pointless because the developer has already been stripped hollow.)