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In China, the “nail houses” resist and exist by the hundreds. Many small owners refuse to sell their homes to developers, and find themselves in the middle of parking lots, building complexes or highways.
Planted in the middle of a parking lot of a huge shopping center, a small house with its chimney. In China, they are called “nail houses”. Their owners resisted the bulldozers. To demolish a house in China, financial compensation is necessary, as well as the agreement of the owner. Before a car park, ten years ago there were about ten buildings. Why two irreducible decided to stay? “I have lived here for almost 40 years. I have never asked an exorbitant price to leave. If they give me a reasonable sum, I will move”confides one of the inhabitants.
The other resident says she is very attached to her home. “I am about sixty years old, I have always lived here”, she explains. An expression of Chinese developers says: “If you can’t build on it, build around it”. In Canton, in southeastern China, a house finds itself in the middle of a road bridge, and a building completely surrounded by a highway. Symbol of resistance to real estate pressure and local authorities who build roads, the “nail houses” exist by the hundreds in China.