A group of Tianjin real estate companies are said to be making plans to buy the damaged residential homes affected by the Tianjin port blast from their owners. The realtors will then sell them again after making the necessary repairs, according to a report on Tuesday.

Global Times reported that five of the city's real estate companies have banded together to offer financial assistance to Tianjin residents by buying their apartment units that have been rendered uninhabitable by the port warehouse explosion.

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A spokesperson for the Tianjin House Construction Development Group Company, identified by his surname Wang, told reporters that they see it as their duty to help out the disaster-stricken residents of the city.

A local city official, who identified himself by his surname Cao, told reporters that the realtors are talking to them although negotiations are still in its initial stages. The main concern of the city government is to ensure that the affected Tianjin residents will receive just compensation for their properties.

Two weeks ago, a chemical warehouse situated in Tianjin's port exploded, causing massive damage ito its surrounding area including thousands of residential homes.

Many of those homeowners aired their grievances in public and want the city government to buy their damaged properties in order to recoup their losses.

Some of the people who lost their homes are asking why the local officials permitted the existence of a chemical warehouse that is very near the residential areas, according to China.org. It has been reported that Chinese zoning laws mandate that facilities storing hazardous and dangerous items should be separated from residential structures by at least a thousand meters. The warehouse at Tianjin was merely 600 meters away from the nearest residential building.

China Vanke, the real estate company that originally built the apartment complexes, earlier disputed the circulating news report that it intends to purchase the damaged buildings, according to Global Times.

Vanke spokesperson Chen Ying told reporters that the company had nothing to do with the accident and that it too suffered damages as well. The company though has promised to aid the city in assessing the financial effect of the explosion to the city's economy. Fitch Rating has assessed that the Chinese insurers are likely to pay out as much as $1.5 billion for the losses suffered by their clients in Tianjin.

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