Officials backtrack on refusal to buy flats in Tianjin blast zone
Homeowners say they have been given a choice of repairs or a buy-out
Authorities in Tianjin will buy damaged flats near the site of last week's blasts, representatives of owners were told at a closed-door meeting on Thursday.
Owners of flats in dozens of damaged residential buildings were given two options, including selling their homes to the government, according to homeowners briefed by their representatives after meeting Binhai government officials. The flats would be bought at the average per-square-metre market price one week before the disaster, the representatives were told.
The authorities' attitude took a sharp turn a day after hundreds of owners gathered on the street outside the venue of a press conference attended by Tianjin mayor Huang Xingguo, and where Zong Guoying, Communist Party boss of Binhai New Area, the site of the explosions, ruled out buying damaged flats.
Owners could also choose to move back in after the government repaired their houses without charge.
But desperate owners were still sceptical about the government's buy-back offer.
"The government hasn't made the offer public to the media, and we haven't seen any official documents," one affected homeowner said.