In a showroom built to resemble an ancien régime palace, a platoon of salespeople stands idle on the frontline of a looming Chinese property bust.

The luxury apartments of Versailles Residentiel de Luxe La Grand Maison, located next to a polluted river in the third-tier coastal city of Wenzhou, have not yet been built but are already on sale for as much as Rmb70,000 ($11,000) a square metre. That is more than double the annual income of the average Wenzhou resident, who would have to save every penny for 350 years to buy a 150 sq m home in this development.

But even the few who can afford it seem to be having second thoughts. “We have been told to say publicly that everything is going very well and our apartments are selling even though none of the other developments in the city can sell theirs,” says one sales assistant who asks not to be named for fear of losing his job.