Ali is gone, Momo is gone, and the middle-class in Wangjing are also selling their houses and leaving.

Recently, there are market rumors that Momo Technology, an old tenant that has been in Wangjing for 10 years, will also move out of Wangjing.

Subsequently, this information was also verified in the construction permit information publicly displayed by the Beijing Municipal Commission of Housing and Urban-Rural Development.

Construction permit information for Momo Technology's new office

Since August this year, the new office building of Momo in Jiuxianqiao has started decoration. It has been under construction for 3 months, and it is not far from moving to the new place.

In May this year, Alibaba's Beijing headquarters park was put into use, and 19,000 Alibaba employees left Wangjing. At the end of the year, about 1,000 employees of Momo in Wangjing will also leave.

Momo is a "senior tenant" in Wangjing. After Wangjing SOHO was completed and put into use in 2014, Momo quickly moved in and has stayed for 10 years.

Although some people say that the feng shui in Wangjing is not good, in fact, Momo has had a good 10 years and has been profitable almost every year. According to publicly disclosed information, in the first half of 2024, the net revenue of Momo's parent company, Zhixin Group, was 5.25 billion yuan, and the net profit attributable to Zhixin Group was 400 million yuan.

Therefore, it can only be said that those who blame poor management on feng shui should look for the reasons of the enterprise itself.

  01 

The reason for Momo's departure is likely that Wangjing SOHO is too vacant.

According to the data previously statistics by World China Jiarun, the vacancy rate of the Wangjing office building market in the first quarter of 2024 was 30.2%. The vacancy rates of landmark office buildings such as Wangjing SOHO, Rongke Wangjing Center, and Jinhui Building are also rising steadily.

The latest market rumor is that the vacancy rate of Wangjing SOHO has reached 43%.

Many companies that once worked in Wangjing SOHO, such as Panda Live, Meilishuo, Chukong, Baihe.com, AcFun, Huang Taiji, Bluegogo, Snowball, and Inke, have mostly moved out one after another.

The rent of Wangjing SOHO has also dropped. In just 2 years, it has dropped from a quoted price of 7 yuan per square meter per day to no more than 3.5 yuan per square meter per day.

In fact, the rent quote of the new office address of Momo, Electronic City • IT Industrial Park, is about 3 - 4 yuan per square meter per day, which is similar to the current rent of Wangjing SOHO, but in the end, Momo still chose to move away.

With the relocation of companies such as Alibaba and Momo, and the entry of the Internet entrepreneurship boom into a silent period, the ones who are most hurt are actually the homeowners who bought houses in Wangjing in the past few years and the merchants who rent shops to do business.

In the past few years, Wangjing has become more and more crowded. The cars parked on the roadside and the employees of big companies who get off work at 9 - 10 pm have caused dissatisfaction among the nearby Wangjing homeowners. Residents near the Alibaba Center have even called the police many times because the drivers who wait for passengers downstairs at Alibaba often honk their horns due to traffic jams.

But now Wangjing is getting emptier and emptier.

The shops downstairs of Wangjing SOHO are only lively on the first floor. Most of the once full restaurants, educational training institutions, and fitness centers on the second floor have closed. The Poly Xinhui City across the street is almost completely empty on the entire floor, and it has been difficult to attract customers for a long time. Haote Mai chose to close the store directly after opening for a few months. The Fangheng Shopping Center Commercial Street opposite Wangjing Xiaojie has been "renovated" for more than two years, and there are still no signs of construction.

Some netizens said, "In the past, when you went downstairs for a walk or walked by the river, you could meet people on the road talking about how this demand is and how stupid the leader is. No matter where you go for a stroll, you can meet people getting off work."

And now some Didi drivers say: They don't like to come to Wangjing to pick up passengers anymore. There are many fewer people taking taxis. It would be too annoying if they encountered a passenger going to Huilongguan at night.

Along with the departure of big company employees and Internet people, there are also a group of "old homeowners" in Wangjing who are also very hurt.

  02 

In early 2023, Wangjing's housing prices experienced the last wave of increase, but then they began to drop significantly.

The data monitored by Anjuke shows that the average listing price of second-hand houses in Wangjing has dropped from the high point of 87,898 yuan per square meter last year to the current 69,623 yuan per square meter, with a decline of 20.8% in less than a year and a half. The Huajiadi area, where there are many old houses, has even dropped by 24.3%.

Because Wangjing is close to the Fourth Ring Road, its location is actually good. Some of the newer and luxury houses have relatively firm prices, resulting in an overestimation of the resilience of the overall housing price data. In fact, the prices of some communities with a large number of listings and urgent sale listings have dropped more severely.

This is a recent transaction housing units statistics circulated on the Internet, from which it can be seen that the small-sized units that were actively traded during the housing price rise period are now discounted very significantly.

New transaction information of some communities in Wangjing

The "school district house" (matching Huajiadi Experimental Primary School) that once had a unit price of up to 80,000 yuan per square meter can now be purchased for more than 40,000 yuan.

Data source: Lianjia

When many homeowners left, they were actually reluctant to part with Wangjing, because Wangjing has been built better and better over the years. Two subway lines run through it, four subway lines pass through it, and the airport light rail is about to add a Wangjing station. There is also the Beixiao River surrounding it, and a leisure walkway directly leading to Aoshen. There is a municipal park in every direction. Moreover, the business in Wangjing is scattered. Although there is a lack of large-scale online celebrity shopping centers, there is no shortage of commercial streets with a good experience in every area. It can be said that life is very convenient.

It can be said that Wangjing is very livable. However, the outflow of industries, coupled with the fact that there has been no large-scale new real estate development in Wangjing in the past 8 years, while the adjacent Cuigezhuang, Beiyuan, and the nearby Dongba, Sunhe, and Houshayu have been continuously launching new properties after overall planning, attracting a large number of Wangjing replacement customers. The combination of the two has caused Wangjing homeowners to sell their properties.

According to the second-hand housing listing data publicly disclosed by Lianjia, since the second half of September this year, the number of second-hand housing listings in the entire Beijing has decreased from 141,000 units to 131,000 units, with an overall reduction of about 10,000 units.

However, the number of second-hand housing listings in the Wangjing area has increased instead of decreased.

Xiaoqi published "Beijing's Second CBD, Second-Hand Houses Have Fallen into a 'Low-Lying Area'" on July 24. There is a screenshot. At that time, the number of second-hand housing listings in Wangjing was 2,897 units. Today (November 19), this data has increased to 2,957 units, 60 units more than 4 months ago. Although the number is not large, it shows a trend.

Moreover, among the northern areas of Chaoyang, only the three adjacent areas of Wangjing, Beiyuan, and Xiaoying have seen an increase in the number of second-hand housing listings, among which Wangjing has the largest increase.

Screenshot on July 24, Data source: Lianjia

Screenshot on November 19, Data source: Lianjia

  03 

The Wangjing real estate market was once very popular. The "Korean Town" before 2008, the three land kings in 2010, the "Second CBD" later, and the Internet startup company gathering area...

With the continuous settlement of industries, Wangjing has also reaped dividends, and the overall construction has accelerated. The earliest "sleeping town" has long disappeared, replaced by a new look with a beautiful environment and a balanced work-living situation.

But today's Wangjing gives two warnings based on this experience:

1. Houses in the industrial belt are more popular, but the industry also has a development cycle and may also undergo migration;

2. The accelerated development of surrounding areas will bring significant fluctuations in housing prices in this area, especially affected by the flow of replacement demand.

But in conclusion, Wangjing is very good, but some people have to leave.