Unsold homes delay electricity fee
13/4/2004 14:45
A local power firm servicing the local downtown areas of Huangpu, Jing'an,
Changning, Xuhui and Putuo District, is worried about the electricity fees from
43,000 unsold housing units in the first quarter of the year, the Xinmin Evening
News reported today.
The number of unsold housing units this year doubled
last year抯. Sixty percent of the houses unsold for at least half a year had
owners from outside the city.
The growing number of unsold housing units,
especially in the city center, is given as the main reason for the failure to
pay electricity fees, said an industry analyst with the Shanghai Housing and
Land Resources Administrative Bureau.
The lower occupancy rate in the city
center is not because supplies exceed demand, but because a growing number of
homes are bought for investment purposes and cannot be sold due to high prices,
the analyst pointed out.
Increasing land transfer costs in the local downtown
areas over the past several years have driven up housing prices, he stressed,
adding that local housing prices increased by 24.2 percent last year, with
property prices exceeding those in Beijing for the first time.
Large property
investments will add risks to the local real estate market, given that property
investment growth exceeded local GDP and income growth, the analyst said.
Wendy Zhang/ Shanghai Daily news
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