China’s plan to build a massive 120 million-square-foot city — from scratch

[beijingwalker]

China’s plan to build a massive 120 million-square-foot city — from scratch
Dec 14, 2012 4:00 PM
George Dvorsky

The Chinese government has approved the final design for a massive planned city scheduled for construction along the rim of a 3.85 kilometer (2.4 mile) lake. Upon completion, Meixi Lake City will provide home to over 180,000 inhabitants and occupy a space that's 120 million square feet in size. The design, which was developed by international architecture firm Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates (KPF), will provide residents with neighborhoods for living, recreation, working, culture, and entertainment.

According to KPF, their design for the Meixi Lake master plan "seeks to establish a paradigm of man living in balance with nature."

They write: "A densely concentrated urban plan, packed with a full variety of functions and building types, is integrated with mountains, lakes, parks and canals, resulting in an environment which promotes both health and prosperity."

"As a new center within the larger metropolitan area of Changsha, Meixi proposes to offer a new model for the future of the Chinese city."

"Advanced environmental engineering, pedestrian planning, cluster zoning, and garden integration, are all made part of a holistic strategy of design in this healthy city."

Of course, we'd be remiss not to mention that Brasilia, the capital city of Brazil, was also a planned city.

 

[Yeti]

It is all well and good having such huge projects but is this going to be another ghost town?

 

[beijingwalker]

It is all well and good having such huge projects but is this going to be another ghost town?

I don't particularly worry about that,China has a huge population and housing price is like crazy here,the most expensive in the world.I personally would like to move to a lakeside city with good natural enviornment like this one.

 

[karan21]

Man seeing this I can say China can do anything. This country is crazy.

 

[Yeti]

I don't particularly worry about that,China has a huge population and housing price is like crazy here,the most expensive in the world.I personally would like to move to a lakeside city with good natural enviornment like this one.

I'm guessing the house prices in the top cities would be high like Beijing or Shanghai but from what I have read some cities and towns in China the real estate market is down and house developers are having trouble selling the units they already have.


That is what I want in future also to live near a lake or a sea that would be ideal.

 

[karan21]

I'm guessing the house prices in the top cities would be high like Beijing or Shanghai but from what I have read some cities and towns in China the real estate market is down and house developers are having trouble selling the units they already have.


That is what I want in future also to live near a lake or a sea that would be ideal.

Well they have a huge housing bubble, no doubt, but the economy has not bottomed out yet. They will keep on building until they keep earning trade surplus money and bad loans dont strike the banking sector.

 

[Yeti]

Well they have a huge housing bubble, no doubt, but the economy has not bottomed out yet. They will keep on building until they keep earning trade surplus money and bad loans dont strike the banking sector.

They are in such a position they can afford to spend their way out of economic gloom we have no such luxury for example when the economic crisis hit China said it would spend US$ 586 billion on a stimulus package that is something we can only dream of doing for the time being.

 

[Type 055]

It is all well and good having such huge projects but is this going to be another ghost town?

They used to call Pudong in Shanghai a ghost city in the 1990's. Now there is no extra space at all. It's packed to the full and that happened in 5-10 years. It's important to build ahead of demand and have a vision for the future, 10 to 20 years ahead. In the short run it creates jobs, gives people money to spend and helps industries like steel, materials, transportation, telecommunications, housing, etc which creates more jobs in their own industries and puts money into their pockets. It increases the stocks of these companies involved and creates more wealth.
These buildings and cities will eventually be filled up as China's urbanisation rate increases. The current cities are already packed so China needs to create new cities so rural migrants will become urban citizens. Not all rural citizens can live in Beijing and Shanghai, these new cities need to be created from scratch to ease the pressure in existing cities that are operating at full capacity.
Shenzhen used to be a fishing village before the economic reforms, it was build up into a city and eventually people moved into them, now it's the main manufacturing hub in China.
These foreigners don't have a clue about the Chinese system, they think it should have instant returns. China is still a developing country, so much urbanisation growth left. Chinese leaders look atleast 20 years ahead. It might look like a ghost city initially but you will see as previous ghost cities I have mentioned were filled up.
Yes, there will always be deadweight loss in every project, it's part and parcel of it. But the benefits far outweigh the costs of such projects. I hope these constructions projects are financed with long term bonds instead of bank loans as the returns on them will not be instant so you don't have to worry about banking crisis if loans cannot be repaid on time. All construction project should be financed with long term bonds.

 

[djsjs]

I'm guessing the house prices in the top cities would be high like Beijing or Shanghai but from what I have read some cities and towns in China the real estate market is down and house developers are having trouble selling the units they already have.


That is what I want in future also to live near a lake or a sea that would be ideal.

长沙梅溪湖Meixi lake·Changsha
infact ,many real estate projects have already been finished there.the house price is acceptable for the location is suburb of a 2nd tier city in central China.there is a big industrial area in the north of this new town,and in several years there will be metro there.

 

[karan21]

Where China here is launching cities after cities we in India are launching land Acquisition bills

Need concent of 80% land owners to build a project.
Indian cabinet approves land reform bill | Reuters

Can I shoot Sharad Pawar, will my small family at PDF support my initiative.

 

[Yeti]

They used to call Pudong in Shanghai a ghost city in the 1990's. Now there is no extra space at all. It's packed to the full and that happened in 5-10 years. It's important to build ahead of demand and have a vision for the future, 10 to 20 years ahead. In the short run it creates jobs, gives people money to spend and helps industries like steel, materials, transportation, telecommunications, housing, etc which creates more jobs in their own industries and puts money into their pockets. It increases the stocks of these companies involved and creates more wealth.
These buildings and cities will eventually be filled up as China's urbanisation rate increases. The current cities are already packed so China needs to create new cities so rural migrants will become urban citizens. Not all rural citizens can live in Beijing and Shanghai, these new cities need to be created from scratch to ease the pressure in existing cities that are operating at full capacity.
Shenzhen used to be a fishing village before the economic reforms, it was build up into a city and eventually people moved into them, now it's the main manufacturing hub in China.
These foreigners don't have a clue about the Chinese system, they think it should have instant returns. China is still a developing country, so much urbanisation growth left. Chinese leaders look atleast 20 years ahead. It might look like a ghost city initially but you will see as previous ghost cities I have mentioned were filled up.
Yes, there will always be deadweight loss in every project, it's part and parcel of it. But the benefits far outweigh the costs of such projects. I hope these constructions projects are financed with long term bonds instead of bank loans as the returns on them will not be instant so you don't have to worry about banking crisis if loans cannot be repaid on time. All construction project should be financed with long term bonds.

I guess many people will be kicking themselves for not buying property in Shanghai during the 90's when prices would have been quite low. Shanghai being a coastal city was always going to rise and grow into a big metropolis like NYC because the CCP leaders wanted Shanghai to have much of the banking industry and financial power that Hong Kong does that was one of their goals. Shenzhen grew big during the 80's I think as it opened up as a SEZ and gained alot of FDI which it is still attracting now.


The new cities being built will have to find their own niche as they lack the history/culture cities like Shanghai or Beijing enjoy, I guess it is a kind of marketing needed to showcase them to the wider world and promote them so people recognise them the way we do with cities like Shanghai from just by looking at the pictures.

 

[Yeti]

长沙梅溪湖Meixi lake·Changsha
infact ,many real estate projects have already been finished there.the house price is acceptable for the location is suburb of a 2nd tier city in central China.there is a big industrial area in the north of this new town,and in several years there will be metro there.

Just for curiosity sake how much would say a 2 bed apartment go for in such a city? and if you were to invest in such a project do you feel in say 5 yrs time the house price would increase by 10-20% in return?

 

[beijingwalker]

housing price ranking in China ,top 3 are Beijing,Shanghai and Wenzhou ,among them Beijing's extremely high and iis going crazy,there is a lot of panic buy in Beijing.
http://www.cityhouse.cn/default/forsalerank.html

 

[djsjs]

Just for curiosity sake how much would say a 2 bed apartment go for in such a city? and if you were to invest in such a project do you feel in say 5 yrs time the house price would increase by 10-20% in return?

the avarage housing price in Changsha is over ￥6000/m2.the price is more than ￥10000 in some good places ,and less than ￥5000 in some rural places. the price in this town is about ￥5000 now.

i cann't give you an accurate predictionif it will increase 10-20% . but i can tell you what happened in the past.when i came to the city in 2004,i saw many house advertising with price about ￥2500,and the avarage price was about 3000 at that time.

in fact , the house price in Changsha is very low compared to other cities.A two-bedroom apartment ,assume it 90 m2, the price is ￥90*6000,about 550,000 including handling fee.

 

[Yeti]

Does this new city have plans for a underfloor cooling system? it will increase efficiency and the city will need to consume less energy