Six apartment buildings under construction for low-income families are being demolished after inspectors found serious flaws.

The half-built buildings, near the South Fifth Ring Road in the Jiugong area of Daxing district, are part of an eight-building project, named Ming Yue Wan, that includes affordable housing and low-rent homes.

Wang Qiang, an official with the Beijing Municipal Commission of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, said the Daxing branch of the commission discovered that concrete used in the project was not sufficiently earthquake-resistant during a routine check in July.

"We stopped the project immediately and had experts do a comprehensive check," he said.

"After nearly two months of testing, we found that all eight buildings had quality problems and that six needed to be demolished."

Wang said the demolition, which started on Oct 9, is likely to take around 20 days.

Local residents who witnessed the start of the demolition said the construction site was sealed off and a huge scissor-like machine was cutting through walls and pillars in the six partially complete buildings of which around half of the 18 floors were built.

The demolition, which was interrupted during the first day by construction workers who were worried about whether they would be paid, continued on Oct 10 and has proceeded smoothly since the initial protests.

Four companies, including the concrete provider are under investigation, according to the commission.

Huang Xuanming, head of the 30-member investigation team and an expert from the National Center for Quality Supervision and Testing of Building Engineering, said the team tested every floor of all eight buildings and found that the concrete used for the buildings did not meet the strength requirements.

"The quality problems do not mean the buildings would have easily collapsed if residents had moved in," he said, while refusing to describe the worse-case scenario if local authorities had not stepped in.

The two buildings that will not be demolished will be reinforced.

Property owners and potential residents have been showing great concern about the issue.

On the online Ming Yue Wan property owners' forum some said they had started to doubt the reputation and qualifications of the developer and construction company involved.

"How can they make sure the re-constructed buildings will be safe and suitable?" a netizen asked on the forum.

(China Daily October 12, 2010)