Home  Contact Us
  Follow Us On:
 
Search:
Advertising Advertising Free Newsletter Free E-Newsletter
Magazine
  
      2024       2023       2022       2021       2020       2019       2018       2017       2016       2015       2014       2013       2012       2011       2010       2009       2008

REAL ESTATE: The Planned Chaos of a City
Share to

The Planned Chaos of a City
By Michael Hart

BT 202006 REAL 03When you walk around a big Chinese city, it sometimes feels like there is no plan. Tall buildings are interspersed with shorter ones, old buildings are next to new ones and department stores are often sandwiched between office buildings and apartment complexes. But despite the chaos, there are planners and designers involved in how cities get built and often, a mix is exactly what they thought was the best plan.
 

当您在中国大城市中漫步时,有时会觉得没有规划,旧建筑物紧挨着新建筑物,百货商店通常夹在办公楼和公寓大楼之间。

BT 202006 REAL 02Planning parameters

If you look at a planning map in the office of an architect or urban planner, you’ll see an array of colours highlighting the different uses of specific land plots, usually broken down into residential, commercial, manufacturing and agricultural property types. Sometimes there is a special designation for mixed use, properties that may contain both residential and commercial buildings. These maps also highlight where the schools and green spaces are located. These masterplans are the result of a long process aimed at ensuring that there is adequate transportation and infrastructure to keep the city running well. These plans also have to take into account the historical elements of a city as well as natural boundaries such as sea shores, rivers or mountains. They usually also designate land for manufacturing and agriculture further from the dense city centres.
 

In especially dense cities where buildings are very tall, planners consider things like how tall a building should be, the shadows future buildings might cast, or wind tunnels a close cluster of tall buildings might create. Planners often try to leave in enough historic structures to keep neighbourhoods interesting, but also allow for some areas to be redeveloped to meet future needs. Increasingly, they also try to create a nice street level plan that includes plants and trees.
 

规划原则

但如果您在建筑师或城市规划办公室查看规划图,则会看到一系列颜色,突出显示特定土地的不同用途。这些地图还突出显示了学校和绿色空间的位置。在人口稠密的大城市,规划还需要考虑建筑物高度,尝试保留历史建筑及相应规划满足未来城市发展需要。这些总体规划是一个漫长的过程,旨在确保保持城市的良好运转。

BT 202006 REAL 05The right balance

In North American cities, there was a time when properties with similar uses were often clustered together. Central Business Districts (CBDs) often had a collection of commercial space with no housing, while suburban areas were largely residential, with few businesses. The plans looked good on paper, but in practice resulted in the CBDs becoming ‘ghost towns’ at night, with high crime rates, while quiet residential suburbs had no culture or gathering places. One result was traffic jams each morning and evening as workers travelled en masse between downtown and the suburbs. This model has subsequently largely been rejected, and many North American cities are now working towards getting more housing into city centres and ensuring that neighbourhoods have more varied property types.
 

Chinese cities also face traffic jams, but mass transit and mixed-use projects that combine property types make the problem much less severe than it might otherwise be if property types were as segregated as they are in North America. Additionally, the jumbled nature of multiple properties types often means there is always entertainment or a place to eat just around the corner whether you are in a primarily residential neighbourhood or a commercial one.
 

Furthermore, different jurisdictions generate tax revenues by different means. Outside of China annual taxes on residential property generate significant income for local governments, while in China, companies are the largest local tax payers. This difference can help drive planning decisions. A recent wave of office construction in Tianjin, for example, was an attempt by districts to create a place for companies to register and thus generate ongoing tax income. Unfortunately, this has resulted in very high vacancy rates in the office market, and it has created some dead zones in neighbourhoods that were once livelier. In some ways, China is repeating some planning models that have been rejected abroad, while those countries look to China’s vibrant neighbourhoods for inspiration.
 

正确的平衡

在北美的城市有一段时间经常将具有类似用途的房地产聚集在一起。CBD只有商业空间,而郊区大部分是住宅,这些计划在表面上看起来不错,但实际上导致CBD在晚上成为“鬼城”,犯罪率很高,每天早上和晚上,市区和郊区之间交通拥堵。这种模式后来在很大程度上被弃用了。

BT 202006 REAL 06The role of the developer

Once the city has designated a specific use for a piece of land, it is sold to a developer. The developer will be looking to make a profit as they build a project that is functional and financially successful, and they need to bridge the parameters set forth by the city planners with the wants and needs of the public who will ultimately buy or rent the space.
 

Sometimes developers will want to build and hold the project for several years, while in other cases, they will want to sell it as soon as they have finished construction. This latter case can also create dead zones where a developer has, for example, sold a street full of new shops and not really considered who might use them. The new owners may have to experiment before they find a retailer that is needed by the local population and is also able to afford the rent.
 

开发者的角色

一旦城市为一块土地指定了特定用途,将其出售给开发商。开发商将在建设一个功能完善且财务上成功的项目时寻求获利,他们需要将城市规划人员设定的参数与最终购买的公众的需求平衡起来。

BT 202006 REAL 07Constant evolution

City planners are constantly updating their plans and often issue a new set of masterplans each year. These changes help illustrate that a city is never static. Major construction projects often take several years to plan and build. At the same time, some buildings will be coming to the end of their useful life cycle. As a rule, cities also become denser over time. A city that started out as a low-rise, walled city will eventually expand outwards and upwards. Building taller structures costs more money, but as a city becomes denser, developers are able to justify more expensive construction. This usually means that as part of their work, city planners will increase the permitted density on land plots as they come up for redevelopment.
 

Forced purchase

One of the aspects that some people don’t like in dense cities is a set of rules that allow either a group of investors or the government to force owners to sell in order to knock down existing structures and build something else. If investors are able to do this, the reason is usually some variety of a forced purchase rule, where once an owner has a certain percentage, say 75 percent of the apartments in a block, they can force the other owners to sell at market rates.
 

This is not generally done in China at present. Governments have a similar power, called eminent domain. They don’t have to acquire a specific ownership stake to force owners to sell, but rather mark out a specific section of land they need and pay owners to leave. The resulting construction is supposed to be for the public good, a major infrastructure project for example.
 

Neither experience is pleasant if you are forced to sell, but these are important tools to make sure a few people can’t block the continued development of a city.

BT 202006 REAL 04Conclusion

In summary, although Chinese cities often look like a hodgepodge of property types, which they sometimes are, there is usually a master plan that contains some logic regarding how the city is to develop, and that plan has to evolve, just as the city does. The best plan is usually to have combined and overlapping uses which play an important role in the development of diverse and rich cityscapes. Neighbourhoods with properties for multiple uses are often more culturally rich, but are also more valuable in financial terms. Laws that force owners to sell may seem distasteful, but are a tool that can sometimes be employed for the continued evolution of the city. They may allow for the construction of projects such as creating infrastructure that serves the greater community, or help to create a new project replacing one that was past its useful life and was no longer serving the community.
 

Ultimately, a city that keeps people circulating, gives them options to eat and be entertained near their homes and workplaces results in a culturally rich and more enjoyable place to live. So next time you find a nice restaurant or shop within walking distance of your work or home, remember, there is sometimes a method to the madness.
 

总之尽管中国城市通常看起来像是房地产类型的大杂烩,但总体规划通常包含了有关城市发展方式的逻辑,并且该规划必须随城市一直发展。最终创造一个文化丰富且更宜居的城市。


Michael Hart is the Managing Director of Griffin Business Management www.griffinbiz.com a real estate related investment and consulting firm with offices in Tianjin.

    Subscription    |     Advertising    |     Contact Us    |
Address: Magnetic Plaza, Building A4, 6th Floor, Binshui Xi Dao.
Nankai District. 300381 TIANJIN. PR CHINA
Tel: +86 22 23917700
E-mail: webmaster@businesstianjin.com
Copyright 2024 BusinessTianjin.com. All rights reserved.