Male villagers' small-house rights fully restored after appeal judges reverse ruling

Appeal judges have overturned a lower-court ruling to reinstate male indigenous villagers' full rights to build three-storey homes on both private and government-sourced land in space-starved Hong Kong.

The Court of Appeal yesterday ruled the small-house policy based on New Territories ­villagers' so-called ding right was "constitutional in its entirety", ­allowing them to continue ­building houses not just on land they owned, but also on plots swapped with, or granted by, the go...