To be fair building standards worldwide have dropped a lot so its not only a Chinese phenomenon. In many western countries newly built apartment blocks are abandoned to to concrete cancer or other structural issues within 5 - 10 years of being built. The old school double brick or stone houses that could last 500 years aren't coming back any time soon. Always buy an older house if you can.The boys use a Hebei apartment casestudy as a guiding principle, in the video below a Chinese leasee complains about her newly constructed apartment block which is showing cracks in ceiling, supporting columns, floors and walls, has cement crumbling and inner walls collapsing, and the property's garage has also sunk.