More than a hundred houses in southern China have been demolished after the property developer failed to sell them for almost a decade.

The houses, located in one of the biggest residential compounds in Heyuan in Guangdong province, were built in 2004. The property is located in one of eastern Guangdong’s poorest cities.

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According to Jiang Rong Real Estate Development, the property developer, only apartment buildings were sold, while the more expensive houses have never even seen a sale.

The company did not give any detail regarding its plans for the land where the demolished properties lay. The demolition project reportedly cost them 120 million yuan ($18 million).

The massive demolition project created a lot of noise and also destroyed the environment surrounding the area, prompting nearby residents to stage protests to voice their complaints.

The residents are demanding that the real estate company compensates them for the hassles and inconveniences caused by the destruction.

According to Heyuan authorities, the real estate company was able to demolish the properties that it was unsuccessful in selling. However, it should have made an agreement with all the residents in the area before proceeding.

Jiang Rong Real Estate Development, for its part, said that they were able to get prior approval from the government.

A Large Number of Unsold Homes

China is currently facing a serious issue with the oversupply of new homes in the mainland that remain unsold, the South China Morning Post reported earlier this month. By the end of 2015, of China’s 720 million square meters worth of unsold homes, Guangdong alone had 160 million square meters of unsold housing property.

To address the problem, Guangdong governor Zhu Xiaodan plans to let state-owned enterprises buy the said commercial housing properties en masse for the purpose of turning these houses into public rental homes.

Zhu vowed that in about three years, Guangdong’s inventory of commercial housing properties will be reduced by more than 20 million square meters.

TagsJiang Rong Real Estate Development, house, Demolition, Guangdong