I’ve been living at MoFang Apartment for almost three years. What I got wasn’t a renewal notice — it was news that the company’s funding chain had snapped and they were on the verge of bankruptcy.
How do I feel? It’s complicated. When I first came to Hangzhou after graduation, it was right when Eggshell Apartment blew up spectacularly. I still get chills thinking about it — the company used tenants’ personal credit loans to cash out and expand. When the money ran dry, tenants lost their deposits, lost their homes, and their credit scores were wrecked.
Looks like no one gets away from the landlord gods. I missed the Eggshell disaster, but I caught MoFang.
This actually started before Chinese New Year, but I was in the middle of switching jobs — too overwhelmed to deal with it. Then Shanghai properties got taken over one by one, so I stopped worrying.
Until last week, when our property manager suddenly disbanded the tenant group in the middle of the night. Same playbook as Shanghai. I spent a whole day panicking and immediately started looking for backup housing.
Luckily, MoFang and the property management reached an agreement by the end of the week — someone’s taking over, deposits and continued stay are basically guaranteed. So my building is having a peaceful handover. Otherwise, juggling a new job while fighting with the apartment company? Just thinking about it gives me a headache.
But honestly, what hit me most isn’t the fear of being homeless. It’s something else.
I’ve been working for almost ten years. None of the companies I’ve worked for were great — some were downright awful — but not a single one went under. My apartment, though — that went under first. Isn’t that absurd? A regular worker grinds away for years, every company stays afloat, and the place they live in collapses first.
Kinda helpless when you think about it. Us ordinary people just do our best and leave the rest to fate… I guess this time fate wasn’t too cruel. Didn’t completely screw me over.
