'Taken hostage in China': The Frenchman who can't sell his illegal Beijing penthouse
Frenchman and others unaware they had purchased illegal penthouses
When Didier Boissiere paid seven million yuan (HK$8.89 million) for a rooftop apartment in Beijing, it never occurred to him that buying a property in China would leave him stuck there.
After moving from Paris for work in 2006, he bought a 200-square-metre flat at a high-end residential community in the Chaoyang Park area of the city.
Seven years on, Boissiere is planning to move to Mongolia, but has found himself "somewhat taken hostage in China". He can't sell his property because he can't get an ownership certificate. He can't get the certificate because, though he did not know it at the time, he bought an illegal apartment, and the developer won't buy it back.
According to mainland law, property developers should provide ownership certificates to buyers no more than a year after a transaction, but Boissiere has yet to receive one.
In the same boat are about 30 other foreign owners of flats in the Victoria Gardens development, which is near the eastern section of the capital's Third Ring Road.