Nail Houses

[GeneChing]

Follow the link for the full gallery. I only posted the lead shot here.

Unbelievable “nail houses” around the world



In China, a "nail house" is a home whose resident refuses to leave in order to make way for new construction. Builders have to elaborately construct around it, often leaving behind an eyesore so awesome that it's almost a sculpture. Here are some of the most famous examples of nail houses.

[Syn7]

Wow!!!

I like the one in the middle of the highway.

So at first I'm like "oh that's mean" then I went to "ok these people are all crazy" then I went to "well, maybe holding out for ten years is actually really smart."

Guess it depends on where and what is going up around you.


I have so many questions. lol

What about utilities?

WCB would love those sites. You get caught on site w/ sleeves that are too short and they throw some paper at ya.

I wanna see some North American nail houses. Do they exist? Or do we just crush them with a legal nightmare till they piss off? I know that in Canada they can force you to sell under certain circumstances. Like a highway, for example. Certainly we won't pave lanes around both sides of the house. At least I hope not!
Does China not have the ability to just take it for public development? A mall is one thing, but a highway is something else all together.

[GeneChing]

I posted on nail houses earlier here.

Look: Lonely 'nail grave' lies in middle of Jiangxi road



We've seen plenty of stubborn "nail houses" sticking out of new developments due to owners' unwillingness to let go of the land, but this burial spot left in the middle of busy road in Shangrao, Jiangxi province is even more depressing.

The plot of land belongs to a local farmer named Zhang Rongsheng, according to GB Times. His mother was buried there after passing away 55 years ago and remains buried there today, despite the street now passing through it.

Construction of the 363-meter long road began in 2013, but Zhang refused to move the grave due to insufficient compensation by the government.



The 13 million yuan project went on to be completed in February this year, and Zhang's mother is still buried below a mound of dirt in the middle of an intersection.

The farmer's father and another one of his relatives are buried nearby, and he is demanding 600,000 yuan to relocate all of them.



[Images via China.com]

Contact the author of this article or email tips@shanghaiist.com with further questions, comments or tips.
By Katie Nelson in News on Sep 4, 2015 8:30 PM

[GeneChing]

Poached from the I will never understand China thread.

Most stubborn 'nail house' causes ridiculous change to path of highway



A new highway being built through Hangzhou has been forced to take a ridiculous alternate route after one landowner held out and refused to make way for the development.
According to Tencent, the building and surrounding land belongs to a pharmaceutical factory which was supposed to have been demolished



The term "nail house" was coined by property developers, referring to nails that have been hammered into wood and are almost impossible to remove. Most of the time this situation occurs when residents feel the compensation they have been offered for their property is unfair and refuse to sell up.
The C-shaped road which has been created as a result has since become quite the talking point for local residents.



We've seen countless such examples of the "nail house" over the years. There was the one sitting atop the 20-meter mound of dirt in the middle of a construction site in Sichuan. Also worth a mention was the Hubei nail house being slowly consumed by surrounding development.
The most tragic example of this phenomena, however, has to be the nail grave which lies in the middle of a road in Shangrao city of Jiangxi province.

By Lucy Liu
[Images via Tencent ]
Contact the author of this article or email tips@shanghaiist.com with further questions, comments or tips.
By Shanghaiist in News on Dec 5, 2015 9:00 PM

[GeneChing]

Hard as nails: Stubborn family who refuse to budge for developers end up living on a tall island surrounded by construction site

Defiant homeowners have been forced to live on a construction site for six years as they refuse to sell up
The family of three had to install bridges to access their house in Jinan, east China's Shandong Province
Properties as such, seen around China, are referred to as 'nail houses' as they are stubborn to move

By SOPHIE WILLIAMS FOR MAILONLINE
PUBLISHED: 04:09 EST, 15 April 2016 | UPDATED: 04:13 EST, 15 April 2016

The owners of a house in Jinan, China, have been forced to build bridges to gain access to their home after developers built a ditch around it.

The house is home to a family of three who have refused to sell up as developers attempt to regenerate the area, the People's Daily Online reports.

Construction reportedly started in 2010 and the family insisted that they stayed there.


Secluded property in busy city: The house sits surrounded by a waterless moat in Jinan, Shandong province


Hard to get to: According to reports, the residents have to gain access to the house by a homemade bridge

A moat now surrounds the house three people call home.

The family are the only ones left on the development after around thirty others were torn down to make way for new properties.

While the others vacated the site, this family have been forced to install bridges to get inside their home.

The house almost resembles a lonely island leaving them cut off from the outside world.


Atop the mountain: The nail house in Jinan stands surrounded by a moat in complete disrepair


According to reports, 30 homes used to stand around the house before development started six years ago


The family have been forced to create an unsafe bridge in order to gain access to their home which sits among a development site

'Nail houses' are so called because of the way they have become irksome to developers. It's in reference to a Chinese idiom, 'nail in the eye', which is similar in meaning to 'thorn in the side'.

The 'nail house' phenomenon is far from being rare. In fact, there are thousands of examples across the country.

In November 2015, a farmer's wife claims her husband was burnt alive by a gang of thugs after he refused to vacate his property to make room for new developments.

As China's population increases and cities continue to modernise, more and more people will be asked to move from their homes.

All land in China is controlled by the state and local governments are allowed to claim land for development projects.


Owners of nail houses such as this will not accept compensation and move, frustrating property developers


In the middle: Three-storey nail house, the last building in the area, with a Chinese national flag on its rooftop


An old shop remains standing on the square in front of a shopping mall in Changsha, central Hunan province


Bizarre: In Guangzhou, the authorities have had to build a ring road around this block of flats

It amazes me that totalitarian PRC cannot relocate these homeowners.

[GeneChing]

This sort of defeats the whole 'nail' allusion, but it still makes a point.

Take a tour of this Chinese 'nail' neighborhood that's been in a stalemate with developers for the past 16 years
Dana Varinsky
Aug. 28, 2016, 11:00 AM


Aly Song/Reuters

Shanghai's Guangfuli neighborhood has been in a stalemate for the past 16 years.

The area is centrally located in one of the world’s most expensive real-estate markets. Luxury condo towers have popped up all around the neighborhood. But hundreds of people living in Guangfuli refuse to move out of their homes and allow the area to be developed.

Their defiance has created what in China is referred to as a ‘nail’ neighborhood, a term that references the last stubborn nail that can’t be pried from a piece of wood. The phenomenon is more common with single homes with residents who can’t come to an agreement with the government or a developer, so the houses remain standing as construction proceeds around them.

According to Reuters, some residents of Guangfuli now live in squalid conditions, growing vegetables in Styrofoam boxes and braving the elements, since many windows lack glass and the buildings are poorly insulated.

But many say the developer won’t pay them a fair price and are waiting it out until a better deal is reached. Take a look inside the neighborhood:

Disagreements between developers and residents in China are particularly difficult because the country hasn’t always had a real-estate market. "It used to be that you either got your housing from the government or your employer," Greg Stein, a professor at the University of Tennessee College of Law specializing in Chinese real-estate law, tells Business Insider. "Housing was not a commodity."


Aly Song/Reuters

Under Chinese law, residents can now own buildings or apartments, but the government still owns all the land. So it has the right to compensate residents for their homes and force them to move — or work with a developer to do so. (Similar eminent-domain policies exist in the US as well).


Aly Song/Reuters

Many homeowners have found the compensation they've been offered too low, and have refused to accept a deal. Bian Jianhua, 48, is one of those. He lives with his mother in a 20-square-meter house. In this photo, his brother, Bian Guohua, stands outside.


Aly Song/Reuters

According to Reuters, the Putuo district government, the local authority in the area, says it wants to make residents’ lives better by demolishing the neighborhood and moving them to new locations.


Aly Song/Reuters

But because the housing stock originally given to workers was low-quality, Stein says, "even if they got compensation, the apartment is so lousy that you couldn’t replace it for that money."


Aly Song/Reuters

Until the matter gets resolved, life in Guangfuli goes on. Here, a baby named Yueyue is held by her grandfather outside their house.


Aly Song/Reuters

Some owners no longer live in their homes, but instead rent them out. Jiang Wei rents one such Guangfuli house with a friend. They pay a monthly rent of 450 yuan ($67) for 6 square meters. Here, Jiang Wei cooks dinner outside the house.


Aly Song/Reuters

continued next post

[GeneChing]

Li Guoqiang, a 38-year-old deliveryman, also rents a home in Guangfuli. In the image below, he talks on his phone outside his house. Though some residents of the "nail" neighborhood have electricity, many do not. Developers often cut off utilities and access, Stein says.


Aly Song/Reuters

The juxtaposition between the new high-rises that surround the Guangfuli neighborhood and the partially demolished buildings inside is stark. Here, a resident named Tao Weiren sits in front of his two-story house.



According to Reuters, real-estate agents estimate the average prices in the area around Guangfuli to be close to $1,115 a square foot. "In a lot of cities, the wealthier people want to move to the suburbs. Here, the wealthy people want to move downtown," Stein says of Shanghai.


Aly Song/Reuters

That makes the Guangfuli neighborhood a very valuable piece of land to develop. But for now, it will likely remain in a standoff.


Aly Song/Reuters

With all the forced relocations in China, I'm surprised this still happens.

[GeneChing]

...build a big ol' Buddha.

Villager builds giant golden Buddha to protect her 'nail house' from being demolished
BY ALEX LINDER IN NEWS ON JUL 20, 2017 9:40 PM



In Zhengzhou, a 10-meter-tall Buddha keeps watch over a wasteland where a village once stood, protecting one final home from being turned to dust.
While her neighbors and fellow villagers have agreed to offers from a developer tasked with converting their shabby village into new high-rise real estate properties, one stubborn and spiritual woman, surnamed Lian, has stuck it out at her home, even as her water and power have been cut.



To help in the fight to keep her "nail house," the woman has even built a giant golden Buddha statue which rises up from her courtyard. According to local news outlets, the glittering statue cost 500,000 yuan to build, funded by the woman, her family and fellow followers.
While some have accused Lian of simply trying to raise her property's value as a negotiating ploy, the woman's nephew told Sixth Tone that his aunt is, in fact, a very devout Buddhist. "She said she wanted to move out, but the Buddha doesn't want to," he explained.
Negotiations between the woman and developer are ongoing. Only time will tell if this turns out to be a more effective strategy than covering your home in pictures of Xi Jinping's face.



[Images via Sina]