Chapter 29 The Day of the Land Auction
The office is not ready yet, so I completed the entry procedures today. Although the salary calculation has started, I don’t have to go to work.
Qin Shuang suggested: "How about letting new employees participate in the purchase of the company's soft furnishings and office supplies?"
Lin Ruoyan only cares about how to decorate her large, sunny office. As long as the cost of other aspects is enough to meet her preset costs, everyone else is up to their own wishes. So it's fine to let them arrange the things they need in daily life.
She gave Qin Shuang full authority to take charge. In addition to office furniture, they also had to buy a company car. Neither she nor Qin Shuang knew much about cars, but that didn't matter. The company's driver, Zhan Li, had already joined the company, so she asked him to buy it. There was no price limit. After he picked out the one, he could call her and she would directly transfer the money to the account where the car was sold.
Wen Erya was currently the lone HR Director. Lin Ruoyan had originally arranged to rent the venue for a full day. The HR Director would be interviewing two of their subordinates there, as well as a candidate other than the Finance Director. Lin Ruoyan needed to select the best candidates for these two positions, not too few. With an expert like Wen Ya overseeing the process, she felt reassured.
Qin Shuang took Feng Qiang, Hua Mengmeng, and two receptionists, a man and a woman, to purchase office furniture. These included but were not limited to regular office desks and chairs, stationery equipment, as well as a coffee machine, refrigerator, microwave oven, and a bunch of other bar items, as well as fitness equipment.
Just making such a list is enough to make other people in the president's office dumbfounded.
The two experienced receptionists can handle routine office supplies and home appliances. For larger purchases like complete sets of office desks and chairs, computers, copiers, and printers, you need to visit the corresponding stores to compare prices.
The book is set in the millennium, when there was no free shipping nationwide for online shopping. It was normal to go to various physical stores to buy things, and just going to these stores was enough to keep people busy for several days.
Lin Ruoyan herself was not idle either. In order to fill her luxurious office, she went to the highest-end furniture store in Beijing and followed the advice of professional interior designers on the style. Whether it looked good or not was secondary. The only thing she cared about was that it had to be expensive.
The day of the land auction arrived in a flash, and Qin Shuang was even more anxious than Lin Ruoyan.
Isn't the most important thing these days the research and cost estimates before the land auction? Why hasn't Ms. Lin assigned anyone any work? She hasn't even hired anyone for the relevant department. They went shopping and bought everything they needed. Without the boss's permission, Qin Shuang could only have Zhan Li drive the group around the target plot in their newly purchased commercial vehicle, but they had no idea where to start.
Lin Ruoyan didn't hire anyone because she couldn't find any suitable resumes. She didn't dare hire those overly ambitious, hardworking, and ambitious professionals. It was terrifying to see employees like that pushing their bosses to be aggressive. Besides, bidding on land right now was simple: just getting a quote. She could just make do with it herself.
It's nothing like the real world of twenty years from now, where land purchasers will need to come with a detailed design plan complete with renderings and economic calculations. Today, land bidders often only have a cost estimate, with a lower limit set for rejection. Few people are willing to clearly articulate the project's objectives.
Xiao Qin and his friends had never worked on a real estate project before, which was why they were so anxious. Feng Qiang hadn't been in the industry before, but he had a wide network of contacts. He secretly inquired around and roughly figured out some key points. He advised Qin Shuang to hold steady, saying that as long as the price was high, there was no need to rush anything else. The core idea of this CY District land auction was to sell the land at a high price.
On the day of the land auction, Lin Ruoyan only brought Qin Shuang and Feng Qiang with her, while her driver, Zhan Li, waited outside in the company van. Her family's luxury car was too conspicuous, and her brother's Mercedes wouldn't be easy to borrow, so this company van, worth hundreds of thousands of yuan, was just the right size.
After entering the venue, the six invited units were given table signs, and everyone just had to sit according to the assigned seats.
Lin Ruoyan took a quick look around and found that four of them had state-owned enterprise backgrounds, namely Baolai, Haizhong, Jingjian and Jingkai, which were exactly the same as described in the book.
And as expected, Lin Ruoyan saw Fang Yue.
Fang Yue and two of her subordinates greeted Lin Ruoyan. Though a smile played on her face, the sarcasm in her eyes was unmistakable. After all, a real rich girl was a high school dropout. How could she dare to open a real estate company? A newly registered real estate company, reportedly still hiring, must have gotten into this auction through a backdoor.
Lin Ruoyan remained humble and only said that she came to observe and learn. Looking at Fang Yue sitting opposite her with a determined look on her face, she remained calm.
After all, Fang Yue's arrival, just as described in the book, was a different approach, likely planning to buy small apartments for basic needs. Fang Yue's upper limit for land purchases would not exceed 60 million yuan; her own funds would not cover any expenses beyond that, and she would definitely not take the risk.
The other four state-owned real estate companies were all beneficiaries of the Cy District government's favors, primarily acting as a buffer. Jingkai, for example, held some Cy District shares. If the land price was too low or even threatened to fail, this company would be the first to take over. As long as they could achieve a sale one million above the reserve price, they could also save face for the Cy District Committee.
There is a reason why the CY District Management Committee is so unsure about this piece of land.
This area is in the middle of nowhere, far from any village or shop, far from the Fourth Ring Road, and the Fifth Ring Road is still under construction. Buses and subways are a kilometer or two away, there's no decent hospital, and the elementary and middle schools are pretty average. At best, it's got a little bit of everything, with the future Olympic venues only about a ten-minute bike ride away. At worst, it's just mediocre, with nothing close by.
Unfortunately, the Planning Bureau has set a particularly high plot ratio for this area. This wasn't the case a few years ago. A nearby villa project had a plot ratio of 0.7, occupying a very large area, creating its own unique scale. Now, as Beijing's market continues to expand, the plot ratio is climbing year by year.
This land surprisingly requires a floor area ratio of 1.6. Covering over 60,000 square meters, the built-up area is only 100,000 square meters, making it insufficiently large. Furthermore, height restrictions restrict the construction to low-rise buildings under 12 stories. The idea is to use a high-rise design strategy, saving some space by building high-rise buildings, while the remaining space is definitely insufficient for townhouses, forcing developers to build low-rise villa-style buildings.
After much deliberation, experts who know a little about real estate all suggest that the target customers are people who have just come to Beijing to work hard, and the entire design should be mainly small one- or two-bedroom apartments that meet basic needs, with a slightly higher unit price, but a low total price and quick returns.
By the time the low-rise buildings are ready for delivery two years from now, the Fifth Ring Road will at least be repaired, and there will be a subway and bus connection nearby. Those who need the apartments are young and energetic, commuting to work in the city during the day, and won't have to worry about childbirth or medical care for the time being. Once they have children and bring their parents in, and the Olympics begin, the area will become increasingly popular, and the necessary amenities will likely open and operate.
Aside from Lin Ruoyan, the other five companies present were essentially of the same mindset: they were determined to keep the total price low and sell quickly. They might consider a slight increase in comfort to justify a higher price per unit, building the house higher and leaving a larger garden, but the units would remain relatively small. After all, their target audience was young people just getting established in the city, and the housing they could afford with six empty wallets wasn't much higher, at most 4,000 to 5,000 yuan per square meter, with a total price tag of under 400,000 yuan.
You have to remember that ten years ago, high-rise central-owned apartments in this prime location, built near the Fourth Ring Road and surrounded by department stores, cinemas, and hospitals, were sold by the government to individuals for only 30,000 to 50,000 yuan per unit, and resold for only 200,000 to 300,000 yuan. Now, this land is even more remote, and the residential complex, which will be inhabitable for several years, has no amenities. At 300,000 to 400,000 yuan per unit, many people find it unbelievably expensive.
Therefore, Fang Yue’s positioning at that time had actually pushed the total price to the ceiling of basic needs.
Lin Ruoyan seemed to be there to watch the fun. She had not participated in the previous rounds of bidding from the other five companies, but just watched with a smile.
Until the price was raised to 59 million, Fang Yue gritted her teeth and added one million, and the land payment reached 60 million, which was far higher than the reserve price. The other four companies did not dare to follow suit, thinking that raising the price any further would be a bit too much.
The host asked, "Is there anyone else bidding? If they don't raise their bid, it will be Yueming Group..."
"Wait!" Lin Ruoyan raised the number plate in her hand and said, "I'll raise the price."
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