Foreign Property News | Posted by Aye Myat Thu
A newly opened highway in China’s Guangdong province has been making news headlines for a very peculiar reason: it’s built around the tiny home who refused to move.
China is well-known for its “nail houses”, properties of homeowners who reject compensation from a developer for their demolition, but while most such examples are encountered within new residential complexes, the one we’re featuring today stands in the middle of a highway bridge. Footage released by Chinese media shows the property tightly squeezed between the lanes of the newly opened Haizhuyong Bridge, in the city of Guangzhou. It is located in a pit in the middle of the four-lane road bridge and has become somewhat of a local attraction.
Ms. Liang, the owner of the modest 40-square-metre, one-storey house told reporters that the Government failed to provide her with a replacement property in an ideal location, instead offering her a flat located near a morgue, which she just couldn’t accept. She is the only person out of a total of 47 homeowners and seven firms who still lives there. The others accepted the Government’s offers and moved away by last September.
“You think this environment is poor, but I feel it’s quiet, liberating, pleasant and comfortable,” Ms Liang said, adding that she doesn’t care what other people think of her stubbornness.
According to a report by Hong Kong-based news outlet South China Morning Post, the Government made Ms. Liang several offers, but she turned down all of them. One of the most generous ones included two other flats as well as monetary compensation of 1.3 million yuan ($186,500). She allegedly asked for four flats and 2 million yuan ($287,000).
After failing to reach an agreement with the homeowner, the Government reportedly had no choice but to alter the original project and build the bridge around the ‘nail house’. However, a spokesperson said that negotiations with the woman will continue.
Ref: OC
