Debt-laden Chinese developer Tahoe under fire from ‘anxious and desperate’ customers amid doubts over completion of Beijing, Shanghai projects
- Customers who were pre-sold flats and villas have been trying to gain the local authorities’ attention since April
- Fuzhou-based company’s cash flow has been brought closer to the brink of collapse by the pandemic
Troubled Chinese luxury villa developer Tahoe Group is facing pressure from hundreds of customers who fear its projects under construction in Beijing and Shanghai might fail and never be completed.
The coronavirus pandemic, which brought China’s economy to a standstill and put a massive strain on highly-leveraged property developers, has brought the Fuzhou-based company’s cash flow closer to the brink of collapse. Construction at its sites has been stalled for months and Huang Qisen, its chairman, was temporarily placed on a national debtors blacklist in April for failing to repay loans.
In recent weeks, customers who were pre-sold flats and villas by Tahoe have demanded that the local governments in both cities investigate its projects.
“We are 100 per cent certain that Tahoe won’t be able to deliver the project on time in July,” said Jack Chen, a 30-year-old who bought a 2.7 million yuan (US$380,502) flat in Tahoe’s Dacheng Xiaoyuan project, which is located in the suburbs of Shanghai.
Construction stopped in September and only resumed partially this month, as Tahoe is behind on payments for building materials, Chen said, citing information gathered from contractors. “The foundation hasn’t even been laid in the southern part of the project,” he said. “We are all so anxious and desperate.”
More than 300 of the 2,000 customers who bought flats at Dacheng Xiaoyuan have been trying to gain the local authorities’ attention since April, by staging protests at Tahoe’s sales centre and posting articles on social media platforms.