A woman taking photographs as residential buildings stand in the background in Beijing. China’s online real estate startups, which once promised to bring the country’s booming property sector into the 21st century, have been side-swiped by the public health crisis. — Bloomberg
Zhang Yan learned first-hand how the coronavirus is ravaging China’s once booming real estate economy. The Shanghai landlord on Internet home-listings platform Danke was surprised when she recently got a terse notice from the company declaring it would withhold all rental payments for a month because of the epidemic.
Customers who have demanded payments owed were rebuffed because of an overload in requests. "Danke has caused me big trouble,” Zhang said of the company, which connects landlords with renters and allows them to lease apartments online. "The platform should protect apartment owners’ interests. I also have a family to feed.”
Limited time offer:
Just RM5 per month.
