RAS-1997 — Page 104

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for one floor of a ding wu, of 700 square feet, was around $6,000 to $7,000. The rent was cheaper than that of a flat of the same size in urban Hong Kong. Since Fanling Wai is located near the Fanling railway station and is provided with a free car park, the demand to rent ding wu in Fanling Wai is still great nowadays. Even the zu wu, of around 400 to 500 square feet, have been rented to outsiders, at around $4,000 to $4,500 per month. In order to benefit from this larger housing market, Pang On Sun, who had his application granted in 1995 as mentioned, was going to rent his house at about $6,000 per month per floor. He calculated that the rental income in five years (about a million dollars) would then cover the construction costs of his house. It reveals that the investment in building ding wu for rental purpose can bring the Pangs considerable and immediate income.

The Pangs can also make a huge profit from selling their houses. In early 1996, one villager advertised in a local real estate company to sell his ding wu; the proposed selling price of one floor was about $1.8 million. That is to say, the house was priced at $5.4 million in total. Though the Pang would have to pay about $1.2 million as a "premium" and to deduct about $1.2 million of construction costs, he could still gain approximately three million dollars. In fact, though the government realises that some villagers take advantage of the policy to profit from the sale of their ding wu (or their ding quan), it still grants them the right to build. This is because the nature of this policy is to recognise and institutionalise villagers' customary rights to build houses for better living conditions. Under this policy, when villagers have their application granted, they can build ding wu by converting their agricultural land into building land without premium or purchasing government land at a concessionary price (about one-third of the market value). This economic allowance enjoyed by the successful applicants will be nevertheless deprived when their houses are sold to outsiders within five years at the end of construction work. The government adopts this strategy for the purpose of discouraging villagers from building houses not for their own use.

It should be noted that not all the Pangs would sell their houses for profit. Rather, building ding wu is considered by some of them a way to re-construct their identification with Fanling Wai. In recent years, some overseas Pangs who are going to retire or have been retired in the village also submitted their applications. For example, Pang Tai