China's Efforts to Redevelop Urban Villages Face Challenges
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China wants to redevelop old urban villages like Paibang to revive the property sector and construction, but progress has stalled due to developer troubles.
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Paibang is a crowded neighborhood with low-rise apartments, shops and factories typical of an urban village.
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Redeveloping urban villages is complicated - requires negotiating with land owners, relocating residents, and is time consuming and costly.
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Urban villages house millions of migrant workers who can't afford other areas, so redevelopment risks pricing them out.
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The government sees urban village renewal as a way to stimulate growth, but the halting progress in Paibang shows the challenges ahead.