Developers should be made to prove claims
Jiangxi provincial authorities recently launched a campaign to make real estate developers declare their costs after they claimed to be selling property at a price lower than the cost. It's time the government established an open-cost system, says an article in The Beijng News. Excerpt:
Many real estate developers are saying that 20 percent of the units in buildings are being sold at prices lower than their costs. So clumsy is this trick that one can see through it at a single glance.
Though some developers are devoid of any sense of shame, we still feel compelled to ask how dare they use false data to fool the people. Why has there been no government intervention?
It is common knowledge that developers are neither willing nor responsible to disclose their costs. Unless the authorities move in to audit their accounts and monitor their costs, property developers will not unveil their mysterious mechanisms.
The unbelievable series of figures released by developers only underscores how indifferent the government is toward real estate development costs?
Development costs, comprising the cost of land, compensation paid for demolishing structures, and money spent on relocating residents, marketing and taxation, should be made public. And they have to pass the test of public opinion. We hope the government does its duty and stops beating about the bush.
(China Daily 09/25/2009 page9)
