'Build, pause, demolish, repeat': China to demolish buildings that could accommodate 75 million people (2024)

FAQs

'Build, pause, demolish, repeat': China to demolish buildings that could accommodate 75 million people? ›

Another person explained the reason for China demolishing the unfinished building. “China has adopted a “build, pause, demolish, repeat” policy as officials try to limit supply to prevent a drop in property prices and increase economic activity through construction. Flats could accommodate 75 mn.

During times of economic prosperity, property companies have often borrowed from banks to fuel their expansion. They use the loans to acquire land from local governments, which make it available by demolishing old buildings and changing the land use in and around cities.

“We estimate that there are around 20 million units of unconstructed and delayed pre-sold homes,” said Nomura's Chief China Economist Ting Lu and a team.

The use of wrecking balls in the demolition process is an older technique. Normally, wrecking balls are made out of steel and they are tied to cranes in order to get the job done. They were the number one choice during the 50's and 60's but they have started losing popularity as technology progresses.

The wrecking ball, or crane and ball, method of demolition is effective and still very popular. The wrecking ball - which can weigh as much as 13,500 pounds - is either swung from or dropped from a crane into or onto a structure, using the momentum of the ball to smash through building materials.

According to experts, sometimes these sold-out houses, buildings, neighborhoods, and even entire cities remain vacant for years, due to a supply-demand imbalance (also believed to be one of the reasons for the Evergrande crisis) caused by excessive urbanization in China.

The National Bureau of Statistics said the total number of people in China dropped by 2.08 million, or 0.15%, to 1.409 billion in 2023. That was well above the population decline of 850,000 in 2022, which had been the first since 1961 during the Great Famine of the Mao Zedong era.

We can see that buildings in China only last for approximately 30 years on average. There is also some statistical data on building lifespans in different countries, see Table 1 (right). It can be seen that the building lifespan in China is much shorter than that in other countries.

In fact, Hangzhou, the Chinese city hosting the 19th Asian Games, has such a residential building which has a capacity of 30,000 people.

Buildings particularly tall are most often deconstructed floor-by-floor down to the building's basem*nt, as opposed to controlled implosion of the structure, which would most likely damage surrounding structures. Demolished for redevelopment of the tower's site.

Why do old buildings get demolished? ›

Fires and earthquakes are some the other calamities that can result in damaging the buildings to the point that they need to be demolished. Due to difficulty in maintenance and maintenance being expensive old buildings are demolished, unless they are historical buildings or fall under heritage category.

J.L. Hudson Department Store

At 439 ft. tall Hudson is the tallest structural steel building ever imploded. At 2.2 million square feet, Hudson is the largest single building ever imploded.

Equipment: Rental excavators or the costs of other demolition equipment can be significant depending on the machinery you need and for how long. Hazardous materials: Asbestos, lead or other hazardous materials can cost up to $25 per square foot for safe disposal.

The Greater Hudson Store, Detroit (125 meters) was the tallest building ever to be imploded via controlled demolition (explosives).

Rising Labor and Production Costs

As China's middle class continues to grow, so does the demand for higher wages and better working conditions. While this is good news from a humanitarian viewpoint, it has raised labor costs, reducing the cost advantage that initially attracted U.S. companies to China.

China is losing more manufacturing and export market share in key sectors to Asian neighbors, with recent "Zero Covid" policies a significant factor leading to further erosion in its long-time dominance of global trade.

China's protracted property downturn is eroding the balance sheets of the nation's largest state banks as their bad loans creep up. Bank of Communications Co. reported Wednesday that its property bad loan ratio jumped to 4.99% at the end of last year from 2.8% a year earlier.

With the property downturn in its third year, progress in downsizing the sector has been rapid in some respects. Housing starts have fallen by more than 60 percent relative to pre-pandemic levels, a historically rapid pace only seen in the largest housing busts in cross-country experience in the last three decades.