Both in China and abroad, people have always been full of beautiful fantasies about isolated islands. Jin Yong's Peach Blossom Island, Daniel Defoe's Robinson Crusoe, built a hut on an uninhabited island, fed horses and chopped firewood, faced the sea, and blossomed in spring, and from then on only cared about food and vegetables.
And this dream is also possible.
Recently, the news that a 34-year-old woman bought a 700,000-square-meter island in Japan to become an "island owner" has aroused heated discussions, and the purchase of uninhabited islands has attracted much attention for a while.
△ A Chinese woman who bought a 700,000-square-meter island in Japan. / Screenshot from Qilu Evening News Sure enough video
In fact, compared with the relatively mature purchase mode of uninhabited islands abroad, China has also promulgated the Regulations on the Protection and Utilization of Uninhabited Islands as early as 2003, which clearly allows individuals or institutions to develop and utilize uninhabited islands.
Some people even take the "minimum standard for the transfer of the right to use uninhabited islands" announced by the Department of Natural Resources, and if you want to travel and vacation on the small island of Nèng Block in Liaoning Province, you only need 3,700 yuan to contract an area of one hectare of uninhabited islands, and the price of one square meter is only three cents and seven cents, rounded up is equal to giving for nothing.
△The mainland is rich in island resources. /unsplash
However, it has been nearly 20 years since uninhabited islands have been allowed to be developed by individuals, but this business is still in its infancy in China. The reason is that the cost is high and the benefits are difficult.
It is very likely that you, with a "dream of island owner", have finally passed layers of procedures and approvals, and in the end you find that "guarding the island" may be more difficult than "buying the island". This is tantamount to mistakenly thinking that you are playing "Animal Crossing", only to find out that it is "PUBG" when you turn it on.
Wake up, it's really good to buy an island, then it can still get your turn?
△ People who hit the idea of uninhabited islands will find that they are playing "PUBG" when they enter the game.
Island owner? inexistent
How to become an "island owner" on an uninhabited island? This is clearly stipulated in the Regulations on the Protection and Utilization of Uninhabited Islands, promulgated in 2003.
Units and individuals using uninhabited offshore islands shall submit an application to the competent marine administrative department at or above the county level, and submit application materials including personal credit certificates, plans for the use of offshore islands, protection plans for the use of offshore islands, and applications for the use of uninhabited offshore islands.
Data show that as of 2020, there are more than 11,000 islands in the mainland, and uninhabited islands account for about 96% of the total number of islands.
△Goji Island located in Zhoushan. /unsplash
It is worth noting that from the perspective of ownership, uninhabited offshore islands belong to the state, the State Council exercises the ownership of non-resident offshore islands on behalf of the state, and individuals or institutions can only apply for the right to use, and the maximum period of use of non-resident offshore islands shall not exceed 50 years.
In other words, the so-called "island owner" does not exist.
Not only are land and islands owned by the state, but according to definition, "uninhabited islands refer to islands, rocks, low-tide highlands, etc. that are not used as permanent residence areas in the waters under the jurisdiction of the mainland", which means that once the owner of the island lives on the island, the island is not an 'uninhabited island'.
△Many high-quality islands in Zhuhai have been given to local enterprises, and after the development of Miaowan Island, tourism there has also developed. /wiki
Lin Dong, known by insiders as "China's first private islander", has long been concerned about island trading and development. As early as more than ten years ago, Lin Dong and people in his circle began to buy islands abroad and participated in the launch of the "Island Owners Alliance". In his opinion, the domestic policy on uninhabited islands is very different from that of foreign countries.
"Foreign countries attach equal importance to development and utilization of private islands, while domestic islands are currently only allowed to be developed and utilized, which means that there is no possibility of private use." Lin Dong once pointed out in an interview with the Times Weekly.
According to the regulations, if the island is not developed and utilized within three years, the government will also withdraw the right to use it according to law, which is to avoid the behavior of encircling and hoarding the island at a price.
The development of uninhabited islands led by the approval system makes it difficult to carry out market-oriented transfers, which means that if the development is not successful, the island can only be smashed in their own hands, and the connection panxia cannot be found.
△ The development of uninhabited islands is not so simple.
The uninhabited island business is not as simple as paying with one hand and delivering with one hand. Because of this, from Zhejiang, Hainan, Guangdong, Guangxi to Liaoning, more and more provinces have liberalized the development of uninhabited islands, and every time can trigger heated discussions among the public, but the actual situation is not applauded, and there are very few investors who really consult the business of uninhabited islands.
This is like a gorgeous appearance but a very poor experience of krypton gold game, no matter how to shout "ten thousand yuan to be the island owner, is a brother to come to the island" is also difficult to make players brainless money, many old players who have withdrawn have said that krypton gold does not guarantee that the game can win is the first time to play.
The island is purchased, start the liver
Many people see that the uninhabited island is cheaper than the homestead of their hometown, and they are eager to try it. In particular, the second netizen who is familiar with the Tanada text said that I am familiar with this plot, starting with an island, relying on hardworking hands to grow an empire that never sets.
However, it is not unreasonable that the uninhabited island business has long been regarded as the pleasure of the rich, and the real uninhabited island development is more liver than the Dongsen game, and some people have even become old people from rich people living liver.
△ Uninhabited islands are desirable, but it is not so simple to develop. /unsplash
The price of uninhabited island game admission is indeed not expensive, referring to the "Minimum Standards for the Transfer of the Right to Use Uninhabited Islands", even the best quality first-class islands, if only used in the original ecology, are used for tourism and entertainment for less than 10,000 yuan per hectare a year.
However, if you want to build a hotel and homestay, it is a heavy use, not only after trial, the price will soar to more than ten times, if you also want to reclaim land to engage in some illegal construction, the price will directly skyrocket to 24.55 million yuan per hectare.
△ Criteria for the transfer of the right to use first-class uninhabited offshore islands Source: "Standards for the Collection of Uninhabited Island Use Funds"
Such a price standard, coupled with the early ban on the real estate industry, is clearly aimed at encouraging the development of uninhabited islands rather than economic development from the perspective of ecological protection.
In November 2011, Ningbo Xiangshan Dayangyu Island, as the first uninhabited island in China to be auctioned for public bidding, was auctioned by Ningbo Global Investment Co., Ltd. for 20 million yuan, and as a result, the environmental assessment of the project alone took one and a half years, and the construction did not officially start until June 2013.
△ Dayangyu Island shown on Google Maps. /Google Maps
Even if the approval is successfully passed, the nightmare has only just begun. Investors have little experience in developing uninhabited islands, which often leads to miscalculation of the cost of building island infrastructure.
With the same construction specifications, it costs at least three times more to build on an uninhabited island than it does on land. In the game of Dongsen, relying on macho men to collect branches and grow fruits, even if they are exploited by the black-hearted capitalist tanuki cat every day, they can always make their island bigger and stronger.
△ The cost of building on the island is much higher than on land. /unsplash
In the actual development of uninhabited islands, the usual price of 200 yuan of sand to transport to the island costs 1200 to 1500 yuan, and a pier will use 20 or 30 million.
In addition, if you don't want the hard-earned island to be knocked back into shape by a typhoon, you have to build sea dams to protect it, and this kind of project is calculated in hundreds of millions.
When Dayangyu Island built the first phase of the hotel, it cost 60 million yuan to generate electricity alone. According to the planning plan, the project originally planned to invest 500 million yuan and carry out construction in three phases, creating a high-end tourism island with characteristic leisure and vacation projects mainly in the yacht industry. As a result, the first phase was not completed, but it was interrupted due to lack of funds.
△ Probably every rich businessman who bought an uninhabited island wants to transform an uninhabited island into a tourist island full of people. /unsplash
Also in 2011, Huang Yimin, a wealthy businessman in Ningbo, acquired Danmenshan Island in Xiangshan for 3.44 million yuan, becoming the first "island owner" in China to officially own an uninhabited island.
Just a few hours before receiving the "island owner certificate", Huang Yimin also took his friends to imagine the future on Danmen Mountain Island, claiming that he would spend 100 million yuan to build his island into a high-end tourism and leisure base by 2020, and now more than half of 2020, 1 billion was thrown into it without even splashing, Huang Yimin has long become a "lai" because of financial loan contract disputes.
Which is strong in the development of uninhabited islands, the Maldives helps
As early as 1999, financial writer Wu Xiaobo spent 500,000 yuan to buy the Qiandao Lake Peninsula, named it "Yangmei Island", and planted a large area of bayberry trees, and later Wu Xiaobo made bayberry wine from the island's own bayberry wine and sold it in the "Wu Xiaobo Channel", and 5,000 bottles of wine were sold out in 33 hours, making a profit of millions, becoming a classic case of island development. Hainan Wuzhizhou Island has also become a popular attraction today.
△Wuzhizhou Island is one of the few uninhabited islands with good tourism development and utilization. /Network screenshot
It's just that not every investor has Wu Xiaobo's fame, and not every island has the geographical advantage of Wuzhizhou Island close to Sanya. In general, although China has many large islands with superior resources, the development of uninhabited islands is still mostly unfinished. On the contrary, the Maldives, which is dominated by coral islands, has strung these otherwise worthless broken diamonds into a world-famous necklace.
The success of the Maldives island tourism industry is first and foremost due to its unified development plan. The Maldives pays special attention to the pre-planning of the island in the process of island development, and the development of each uninhabited island is first leased by an economic entity (investment company) to the government, and a hotel is built on the island, which is operated and developed in a complete, independent and closed resort mode.
△Resorts in the Maldives. /unsplash
Although the Maldives also has the requirements of low-rise buildings, low-density development, low-capacity utilization and high greening rate in the development of uninhabited islands, unlike the multi-department co-governance model in which the development rights of the Maldives are controlled by the former Oceanic Bureau, investment attraction is coordinated by the China Merchants Bureau, planning and construction involves the Planning Bureau and the Housing Bureau, and project demonstration needs to be approved by the National Development and Reform Commission.
△The island of the Maldives. /unsplash
For a country with island tourism as the pillar of the economy, it is obvious that selling the island is not enough, the department will also be responsible for logistics, garbage disposal, airport and other infrastructure support, the hotel only needs to be responsible for the island's energy supply, sewage treatment, garbage collection, water supply, beach maintenance, prevention and control of vegetation degradation, solid waste collection and treatment and other specific affairs.
Of course, as a condition, the Maldivian government usually owns the property rights to the hotel, attracting domestic and foreign investors through open bidding for lease rights, usually for a period of 20 to 30 years.
△Maldives operates island tourism very well. /unsplash
Such a model allows investors to quickly enter the operation state and achieve profits in the short term, and Chinese uninhabited island players who need to build tall buildings on the ground have entered the countdown to use rights at the moment when the real development is completed.
The big boss who came with the purpose of making money is likely to find himself doing charity with one or two hundred million in the end.
Resources:
DUAN Wenjuan. (2017). Maldives model: a model for the development of "uninhabited islands". Ocean Life in Streams. earth
Detective Jun. (2020).1200 yuan as an "island owner"? Some of those who spent huge sums of money to buy the island made tens of millions of profits, while others became "old laissezers". New Financial Street Detective
CHEN Xingjie. (2020). What is the difficulty of buying an island as an island owner. Jingchengzi
Su Jed. (2020) .3700 yuan can contract an uninhabited island, is the "peach blossom island owner" really easy to do? China Newsweek
This article is reproduced from the [Time Magazine] public account (ID: timeweekly)
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