Chinese homeowner buys 34th-floor flat in 32-storey building, gets no compensation

A Chinese man bought a flat on the 34th floor of a newly developed building only to be told four years later that the building only had 32 floors.

The man, surnamed Shen, from northwestern China’s Shaanxi province, bought a new-build flat in a village near the provincial capital city Xian in 2013.

He bought a 90-square-metre unit on the 34th floor of a building which cost 2,646 yuan (US$400) per square metre.

It was about one third of the average housing price, because the residential compound came with limited property rights.

A flat with limited property rights is an unofficial name for a kind of grey market housing developed illegally on the collectively owned rural land.