They stand as eyesores to most passers-by and potential public health risks to authorities, decaying buildings wrapped in tangles of exposed wire, studded with protruding leaky plastic pipes, vegetation billowing from cracks and terraces where particulates from polluted air have accumulated over time.
With skyscrapers and ultramodern developments on every side, some of these “nail houses” are also sitting on land worth millions of dollars in Shenzhen’s inferno of a property market, where new-unit and second-hand home prices rival London.
In battles over land and development, the nail house phenomenon has become widespread throughout China over the past two decades, with owners of the structures refusing to move to make way for new construction projects until they receive what they believe is their rightful compensation.
Sandwiched between two 20-plus-story residential complexes in the heart of Shenzhen’s Louhu District sits one such building that has fallen into disrepair.
The three-story building now essentially has no development value after its owner held out too long. Its most likely fate is to become a parking lot.
“The owner is still asking for about 100 million yuan [US$14.35 million], but now it is nearly worthless. He cannot sell it,” a middle-aged woman who rents in the building said, declining to provide her name.
The megacity of about 18 million people is hoping that a new proposal will rid the city of nail houses for good, and bring to an end land disputes that can sometimes drag on for a decade.
The plan would greenlight projects if 95 percent of the owners agree to relocate. The previous policy required all owners to approve, often leading to a handful of holdouts hoping to secure higher compensation.
The draft policy also sets minimum standards for the payout, which translates into either a home or homes of equivalent size and value elsewhere in Shenzhen, or cash payments based on space and property values.
Qiao Shitong (喬仕彤), an assistant law professor at the University of Hong Kong who has studied the city’s small property system extensively, said that Shenzhen has tried to move forward similar policies in the past, but had too much pushback from property owners and village committees.
“But this one might be successful,” Qiao said by telephone. “People appear to think it is more reasonable to do it this way now.”
“Before it was a conflict between developers and nail house owners, and now under this policy it would be a conflict between you and your neighbor,” he said. “It is becoming more common to use peer pressure to solve these issues.”
‘TERRORIST ATTACK’: The convoy of Brigadier General Hamdi Shukri resulted in the ‘martyrdom of five of our armed forces,’ the Presidential Leadership Council said A blast targeting the convoy of a Saudi Arabian-backed armed group killed five in Yemen’s southern city of Aden and injured the commander of the government-allied unit, officials said on Wednesday. “The treacherous terrorist attack targeting the convoy of Brigadier General Hamdi Shukri, commander of the Second Giants Brigade, resulted in the martyrdom of five of our armed forces heroes and the injury of three others,” Yemen’s Saudi Arabia-backed Presidential Leadership Council said in a statement published by Yemeni news agency Saba. A security source told reporters that a car bomb on the side of the road in the Ja’awla area in
PRECARIOUS RELATIONS: Commentators in Saudi Arabia accuse the UAE of growing too bold, backing forces at odds with Saudi interests in various conflicts A Saudi Arabian media campaign targeting the United Arab Emirates (UAE) has deepened the Gulf’s worst row in years, stoking fears of a damaging fall-out in the financial heart of the Middle East. Fiery accusations of rights abuses and betrayal have circulated for weeks in state-run and social media after a brief conflict in Yemen, where Saudi airstrikes quelled an offensive by UAE-backed separatists. The United Arab Emirates is “investing in chaos and supporting secessionists” from Libya to Yemen and the Horn of Africa, Saudi Arabia’s al-Ekhbariya TV charged in a report this week. Such invective has been unheard of
‘SHOCK TACTIC’: The dismissal of Yang mirrors past cases such as Jang Song-thaek, Kim’s uncle, who was executed after being accused of plotting to overthrow his nephew North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has fired his vice premier, compared him to a goat and railed against “incompetent” officials, state media reported yesterday, in a rare and very public broadside against apparatchiks at the opening of a critical factory. Vice Premier Yang Sung-ho was sacked “on the spot,” the state-run Korean Central News Agency said, in a speech in which Kim attacked “irresponsible, rude and incompetent leading officials.” “Please, comrade vice premier, resign by yourself when you can do it on your own before it is too late,” Kim reportedly said. “He is ineligible for an important duty. Put simply, it was
US President Donald Trump on Saturday warned Canada that if it concludes a trade deal with China, he would impose a 100 percent tariff on all goods coming over the border. Relations between the US and its northern neighbor have been rocky since Trump returned to the White House a year ago, with spats over trade and Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney decrying a “rupture” in the US-led global order. During a visit to Beijing earlier this month, Carney hailed a “new strategic partnership” with China that resulted in a “preliminary, but landmark trade agreement” to reduce tariffs — but
RSS