COVERING an area of more than 20,000 square meters, 84 unfinished villas in Gongle Community of Bao’an District have remained unoccupied for more than two decades, the Daily Sunshine reported.

The long-abandoned villas have now become a parking lot. Car owners need to pay 200 yuan (US$28.46) a month to Shenzhen Xinhongshun Property Management Co. Ltd. for parking fees. The ground floor of several villas are also serving as charging stations for electric bicycles.

Feng Xiushi, chairman of Gongle Joint Stock Co. Ltd., said the construction of those villas was started in 1993 by the villagers themselves, and they were later left idle due to lack of money.

More than nine-tenths of the villas were left undecorated, and the change in leadership in the village further delayed the work.

In many residents’ eyes, this area is highly profitable, because it is adjacent to Metro stations and schools. However, the renovation work has yet to be initiated as the relative authorities have not provided a solution.

Another unfinished building in Nanshan District, Bangda Garden, has recently shown signs of “revival” as the walls that once blocked the building were removed and business owners were welcomed to make investments in the surrounding cultural creative park.

Bangda Garden was built in 2000 but was laid aside after the sales manager of the housing estate was accused of defrauding dozens of buyers by selling one apartment to a number of buyers.

In 2011, the Nanshan District Government established a work group responsible for revitalizing the housing estate and has been pushing forward the work in recent years.

According to a person who is familiar with the matter, the work group has received support from the subdistrict office and started registering the information of house owners.

A resident who lives near Bangda Garden also said the environment at the property has improved since relevant departments removed the garbage outside the buildings, eliminated hidden safety hazards and renovated the buildings’ facade.

Song Ding, an expert in real estate research, said that specific measures should be taken to handle different unfinished buildings.

According to Song, the government should formulate corresponding policies and guidelines for dealing with unfinished buildings, and the developers should solve problems regarding such aspects as financing to get the renovation work started as soon as possible.

(Zhou Ting)