Page 54 - JCAU-7-3

Journal of Chinese
Architecture and Urbanism Rural–urban village regeneration

Figure 2. Partial land boundary map for Demarcation District (D.D.) 326 in Shui Hau village
Source: Government map by the villagers.
land boundaries and mistaken registration of squatter Under the Cap. 121 Buildings Ordinance (Application to
structures. the New Territories) Ordinance, male indigenous villagers aged
18 or older are eligible to apply for a “Ding” (丁; male offspring)
4.2. SHP for indigenous villagers right to construct a small house with specific controlled
Before the implementation of the aforementioned dimensions (i.e., a maximum roofed-over area of 700 sqft,
leasehold and taxation system, the N.T. functioned as a a height of 27 ft, and no more than 3 stories). This type of
series of self-sufficient agrarian economies, and there were small house is classified as a New Territories Exempted House
vigorous conflicts between the Punti clans and the colonial (NTEH), meaning its construction is exempted from specific
government, including the Six-Day War of 1899 (Hase, provisions and regulations under the Buildings Ordinance,
2008, p. 43). The N.T. served as a buffer zone between the such as the requirement to obtain approval and consent
British colony and China until the 1950s, when a post-war from the authority (i.e., Buildings Department) before the
population boom, driven by an influx of immigrants from commencement of works. Indigenous villagers may also apply
China, necessitated large-scale industrial and residential for a private treaty grant to build houses on government lands
development. within village environs if private land is unavailable. Overall,
To facilitate this development, the government proposed the SHP is a development-oriented and gender-discriminatory
the construction of new towns in the N.T. and started policy that has resulted in the inefficient utilization of land
resuming large amounts of land from indigenous villagers, resources among privileged indigenous villagers (Ma, 2016).
offering compensation. In the later years, however, many 4.3. Development-oriented planning
villagers found it difficult to afford government lands for
building village houses. With assistance from Heung Yee To indigenous villagers, Ding rights are considered
Kuk, the statutory advisory body for indigenous villagers, inherited wealth from their ancestors. The demand for
a policy for building small houses in rural areas was swiftly building small houses has consistently grown. In 2016, the
drafted and introduced in 1972. This policy, later known Heung Yek Kuk estimated there were 240,000 potential
as the SHP, was initially regarded as a political strategy to applications, though whether this figure reflected actual
facilitate colonial administration (Tang et al., 2005) and housing needs remains questionable. Earlier research
as a reward for the Heung Yee Kuk’s in maintaining order revealed that 47% of successful applications from 1997 to
during the 1967 riots (Ma, 2016). However, it has arguably 2002 involved requests to remove restrictions on house
resulted in fundamentally biased priorities favoring (re)sales, indicating systemic abuse of the SHP for profit-
indigenous villagers. making purposes (Ma, 2016ibid). Precedents show that

Volume 7 Issue 3 (2025) 5 https://doi.org/10.36922/jcau.4992