(Ecns.cn)--"The property bubble finally burst", admits a long time Ordos resident who prefers to remain anonymous. The source says established commercial buildings in Kangbashi district are offering crazy discounts, with prices tumbling to as low as 3,000 yuan per square meter from the exorbitant rates of 10,000 yuan common last year.
What the insider disclosed soon became common knowledge across the country and stirred up another round of extensive press coverage in November. Reporter Zhan Lihua from Qianjiang Evening News paid a visit on November 24 to witness the "cold winter" of the Ordos property market.
Cornered in an empty city
Zhan soon saw construction workers with their quilts and big bags lined up at the long-distance bus stations around the city. These workers were clearly leaving Ordos in the hopes of finding a better life before the deep winter set in.
The property developers the reporter called for comments don't have this option to keep their payments from falling into arrears however. Their legacy of empty and unfinished buildings has cornered them in a vacant city. "When I look out of my window, I see aborted starts or half-finished property projects of an average of several thousand mu (1 mu= 0.0667 hectares); anxiety fills the air", sighed a local developer who confesses he has no idea if he can keep his business afloat this winter.
Life-saving cash, or not?
It is said the local government is preparing a financing plan as a collapse of the property market is imminent. Some local businessmen known to possess 100 million yuan or more in capital have been probed about their interest in investing in urban construction, reports 21st Century Economy Report. The local government is expected to set up a fund which could diffuse the situation by approving applications from property companies according to the severity of their need for financing. Even so, no one applicant will receive more than 20 million yuan.
The plan has not been confirmed yet, but rumors are circulating. The desperate property sector is alert to any development that gives them a hope of survival.
"As the government is making this gesture to rescue the market, we will probably live to see better days", said one developer who has been struggling along with a sales rate lower than 30 percent since his building project was launched two months ago.
