Developers trick homebuyers with lure of top schools

(Ecns.cn) -- An increasing number of Chinese parents are buying homes in areas associated with prominent schools to boost their children's education, but, despite paying top dollar, many of them are facing bitter disappointment instead, reports China Newsweek.

With the new academic year approaching, numerous real estate agencies in Beijing are launching campaigns touting good local schools to promote sales. On top of that, developers are also promising access to Beijing's best primary schools through specially-built branches right in the neighborhoods. But are these schools really what they say they are?

Broken promises

"Our children need to go to school!" cry homeowners at a real estate project by China Resources Land Ltd (CR Land), a powerful property developer.

The project is located near the West 2nd Ring Road of Beijing and, even though prices are sky high, apartments there sold out within weeks when the developer promised to build a branch of Beijing Primary School in the community. (The school is the only one in the capital bearing the word "Beijing" in its title, and is widely known for its high level of education.)

CR Land claimed in its advertisement that the school would accept its first batch of pupils in September of 2011, yet locals say the school was far from ready by that time.

Han Renjie, a local homeowner who worries about his child's education, says the playground of the site was piled with sand, stones and bricks less than four months before the new semester began.

During the International Labor Day holiday earlier this month, Han and other locals gathered to discuss getting the government involved in the issue.

Since April 13, a group of nearly one hundred homeowners, including Han, has complained about the problem six times to the Xicheng District government and education commission, yet at the time of writing they still had not received an official response.

Han says he spent over two million yuan (US$316,200) to buy his modest 50-square-meter apartment mainly because he wanted his child to go to Beijing Primary School. It appears that his money may have been wasted.

Spurious quality

According to a survey conducted by China Realty Research Center and Sohu.com, more than 90 percent of Beijing homebuyers choose neighborhoods near prominent schools; of those people, 60 percent with plans to upgrade to larger apartments rank their children's education as the top priority.

Unsurprisingly, more and more property developers are eyeing the potential profits of such a demand, and are rushing to build communities with attractive educational resources.

In recent years, prices of real estate linked to prominent schools have soared; a survey conducted by China Newsweek reveals that the average price of such housing in Beijing is currently about 40,000 yuan (US$6,324) per square meter, and such properties are always in short supply.

Chen Guoqiang, deputy director of the China Real Estate Society, says "education-concept" communities were first built near schools, but the latest fashion is to build branches of famous schools within the communities themselves.

But even though the facilities are similar to their parent schools, teachers at the branches are almost always less experienced. Beijing Primary School has several branches in the capital, but only one or two are actually managed by the parent school, which means most of its branches benefit their students in name only.

Parents are inevitably disappointed after finding this out, but face many difficulties in changing schools for their children quickly, says an official from a branch of a top Beijing primary school.

Embarrassing situation

While many people may be scrambling to buy education-concept homes, others are trying to escape what they say is a trap.

According to Long Ge, another homeowner duped by the CR Land project, the number of people finding out the facts about branch schools is rising; many have already made plans to relocate or pay large sums to enroll their children in good schools outside the community.

Similar situations also exist at other projects. In June 2009, a homeowner from an education-concept community in Chaoyang District took the project's developer to court when a promised nine-year compulsory education was cut down to only six years of secondary education.

To find a good primary school, the homeowner had to either move again or pay a sponsorship fee that would guarantee nothing, since there are many requirements for students to enter good schools in Beijing.

After a year and a half of legal wrangling, the homeowner finally lost the lawsuit, but the local government came up with a solution to satisfy the homeowners by sending their children to a local public primary school.

This brought about a good result in the end, says the homeowner's attorney, but many people are still struggling with similar situations. In Beijing, developers often make misleading verbal promises concerning education, so real estate buyers must be cautious when choosing their future homes, he warns.