A unit of China Evergrande Group has returned 11 plots of state land back to city authorities in central China after allowing them to lie fallow, in a sign of a festering cash crunch for the world’s most indebted property developer, reports the South China Morning Post. The land parcels, measuring a combined 1.5 million square metres (16.14 million square feet), were surrendered to the authorities in the Hubei provincial capital of Wuhan without compensation, according to an announcement last Friday by the local Planning and Natural Resources Bureau.
The land, zoned for leisure and tourism and originally named the Badeng New City, was bought for RMB 5.6 billion ($786.4 million) in August 2017 from China Calxon Group, and renamed Evergrande Technology Tourism City, according to a filing by Calxon.
“The government of Xiajiang district made the decision to retrieve the land-use right of the 11 undeveloped parcels at the Evergrande Technology Tourism City on November 16, with no refund,” said the Wuhan government’s filing.
