A NUMBER of households in a residential estate in Futian District were found to have built illegal structures by laying steel plates between the structural walls to expand their homes an extra 3 square meters, sznews.com reported over the weekend.

    Futian District’s law enforcement officers began dismantling the illegal structures this month. A fleet of drones taking pictures of the illegal structures in the residential compound Friday showed that a majority of the households in the estate had illegal structures.

    One of the construction workers who was dismantling the illegal structures said that it was their third time removing such structures in this residential estate.

    Dismantling the first two did not go smoothly, because the property owners refused to cooperate due to the money it took them to build the pseudo balconies.

    After a long negotiation, the property owners of the illegal structures eventually compromised and allowed the workers to remove the illegal structures from their homes.

    According to photos taken at the scene, some of the steel plates had rusted, creating potential dangers for residents living nearby.

    The average price for an apartment in this neighborhood is around 75,000 yuan (US$10,800) per square meter. After attaching the illegal 3 to 4 square-meter balconies, the property owners were able to enlarge their homes and save more than 200,000 yuan.

    (Zhang Qian)