When Zhang Fang’s mother turned 75 and Beijing’s hot summers were getting too much for her, he decided to buy an apartment on the coast about 700km away for herself and a live-in carer. He found a two-bedroom unit on the sixth floor of a building in a large project built by one of the most prominent developers in the region and paid the full price of 350,000 renminbi (€45,000) upfront. Residents had already moved into other parts of the development and the roof was already on the building where he had bought, although there was no water or electricity...