After more than a year of rumors about Ant Financial's withdrawal, the news was finally confirmed.
Recently, the planning department of Hangzhou answered netizens' questions on the political platform and said that the first phase plot of Ant Financial Services (Plot XH1710-B1/B2-23 of Zhijiang Resort Unit) located in the north of Zhijiang Bridge was signed by Alipay (Hangzhou) Information Technology Co., Ltd. on November 4, 2020. The enterprise has applied to the Hangzhou Planning and Natural Resources Bureau for termination of the contract on July 1, 2022.
In October 2020, after the official announcement of listing in Shanghai and Hong Kong, Ant Group won the XH1710-23 plot in the Zhijiang section at a total price of 2.698 billion yuan, announcing the settlement of Ant Group's global headquarters. The land parcel has a sold area of 207800 square meters, a floor price of 5194.01 yuan/square meter, and a sold building area of 519545 square meters. At that time, the land was limited to a hundred billion level enterprise, requiring the construction of a 130 meter super high-rise building, and the transferee held all the property and land themselves, which could not be transferred for 10 years from the date of land review and acceptance.
Under the movement of ants to create wealth, their land acquisition has led to a frenzy in the Jianglou market in Hangzhou. The landlords of the second new houses next to the ant plot have raised prices by one million overnight, and even the sales of surrounding apartments are like stepping on a fire wheel. There is a constant stream of house buyers, with prices increasing day by day.
But with the downturn of the Hangzhou real estate market and the uncertainty of Ant Financial's IPO, this noise has also calmed down. On August 10, 2021, Ant Technology once again won the land across the north road at a bottom price of 1.315 billion yuan. According to the original plan, the two plots of land will be connected to create the Ant Global Headquarters, with a total area of over 800000 square meters.
During this period, rumors of ants retreating to the ground have also been circulating. But in July 2023, the Development, Reform, Economic and Information Bureau of Xihu District released the "List of 108 District level Key Projects in Xihu District for 2023". The Ant Headquarters Park (Phase I) project located in the Zhijiang area appeared on the list, with a planned total investment of 9.712 billion yuan and a planned investment of 1 billion yuan for 2023.
This information has added uncertainty to the rumors of ant retreat.
In October 2023, Ant Financial won the Youth Treasure plot on Xixi Road at a bottom price of 1.53673 billion yuan. The plot covers an area of 156.3 acres, with a plot ratio of 1.3 and a total construction area of 135000 square meters. The total construction area is expected to be around 200000 square meters.
This plot of land is adjacent to Ant Financial Services A space, and there is a greater possibility of building a headquarters, which has cast a shadow over rumors of the retreat of the Ant Financial Services River plot.
Until the official response from the planning department of Hangzhou, the rumor of Ant Financial Services retreating from the river was finally confirmed.
The owner of the Yuzhoubin River adjacent to the Ant plot told Interface News reporters that the Ant acquired the land and the house suddenly increased by six to seven hundred thousand yuan. At that time, the house had only been sold for more than a week, and his heart was filled with regret. Now looking at the housing prices in the community, the same layout is nearly 300000 yuan lower than the selling price I offered.
The retreat of Ant Financial has not affected the property market. A market person in Hangzhou told the interface news reporter that the foam of the real estate market in the river where Ant took the land has already been cleared, and the second-hand housing has already fallen back to the price before Ant took the land along with the overall decline of the property market in Hangzhou. Nowadays, there are hardly any upside down buildings in the city of Zhijianglou, and people who buy new houses are all looking for their own homes.
According to data from the Chaoxin Good Life Research Institute, the average monthly transaction price of second-hand houses currently on sale in the Zhijiang sector has dropped by more than 20% compared to the previous highest monthly transaction price, with the highest even dropping by 34%. However, the previous highest monthly average transaction price reached 65737 yuan/square meter, and the recent average transaction price of Kerry Cloud Heting can only reach around 46000 yuan/square meter.
On Lianjia.com, Ant Land's biggest beneficiary project, the Yuzhoubin River, once had a listed price of over 60000 yuan per square meter. However, the current price of 41400 yuan per square meter is the lowest listed price for a 89 square meter apartment, with a total price of 2.85 million yuan and a unit price of 31800 yuan per square meter.
At present, there are no new housing projects for sale in the sector. The previous project for sale was Jianfa Yunqi River, with a total land price of over 12 billion yuan. More than 3000 housing units were launched, with a limited price of 37500 yuan per square meter for high-end decoration. The lowest winning rate was as low as 11%, attracting over 16000 groups of homebuyers.
But the above-mentioned market insiders say that many people buy Yunqi River for their own residence, mainly focusing on the school district and other supporting facilities as well as the quality of construction and development here.
A property owner of Jianfa Cloud Qizhi River told Interface News reporters that buying a house has nothing to do with ants taking land. They have heard about ants returning land for a long time, and they also bought it here for work and children's education.
Ant Jinfu, who has stirred up the real estate market in Zhijiang, only has a sigh left in the local area and cannot cause any waves.