Real estate: working group raises expectations

The Working Group to Promote the Real Estate Market’s Sustainable Development was formed to oversee the local property industry (photo by Manuel Cardoso)

The implementation of the Working Group to Promote the Real Estate Market’s Sustainable Development was gazetted yesterday and has been welcomed and praised by industry representatives. However, speaking to Macau Daily Times, the commentators give some advice for the future work of the new government body.
The working group’s mission is to oversee the property market and push forward more transparent, open and regulated operations in the industry. Earlier this month secretary for Transport and Public Works, Lau Si Io, said that the group will work to gather information from the real estate market, including from developers, real estate agents and property buyers, and act to decrease the number of unfair conditions with the aim of ensuring the rights and interests of buyers.

Ronald Cheung: ‘Macau is quite a small market compared to China and Hong Kong and the group should not copy directions from there’

Apart from collecting and analysing opinions for the promotion of the real estate’s sustainable development, the cross-departmental group has to “study and suggest policies to be implemented in short, medium and long term,” the Chief Executives’ dispatch stated.
The group will regularly submit proposals to the Chief Executive including details on the real estate business, the sale of units in buildings under construction, the rental business, taxes on real estate and giving out of information about the industry.
By September 30, a preliminary report should be submitted to the Chief Executive pointing out a set of technical solutions that would be useful for the drafting of policies and measures. Various sectors from the society will be invited to share their opinions with the group before the report is finalised in November this year.
Coordinating the new task force is Secretary Lau Si Io, or in his absence, the head of the Office of the Secretary for Economy and Finance. The groups members will also include the head of the office of the Secretary for Transport and Public Works, the director of the Legal Affairs Bureau, the director of the Lands, Public Works and Transport Bureau, the director of the Housing Bureau, the chairman of Monetary Authority of Macau’s board, the deputy director of Finance Services Bureau, two advisors of the office of the Secretary for Transport and Public Works and the registrar of the Real Estate Registry.

Transparency needed

“It is a good move to organise a group to investigate directions for the future of the market,” the chief executive of Midland Realty Ronald Cheung said to MDT.
However, the property market businessman continued, the group’s future work methods should be guided by self-control. “Macau’s market is still healthy and too much measures may not be a good thing to the current situation,” he said.
“I just want to remind that Macau is quite a small market compared to China and Hong Kong and the group should not copy directions from there,” he advised.
According to Cheung, the SAR Government has to be aware that problems could arise if Hong Kong and mainland China’s laws and measures are applied in Macau. Apart from the market size, he added, Macau has no “sufficient expertise and human resources to enforce such laws and measures.”
“Even if Hong Kong impose too much sales’ restrictions, they have many expertise to enforce it. We have to consider the situation of Macau to prevent any undesirable situation,” he said.

Juliet Risdon: ‘It would be good if the new group could be able to push for more transparency in property transactions’

Nevertheless, certain policies should be implemented, Cheung stressed. “The Government just should follow old directions. Two years ago, it has proposed two papers – one property pre-sales regulation and another on real estate brokers – but they weren’t imposed yet,” he recalled.
Juliet Risdon, property investor, renovator and real estate broker said that transparency is what the new group should strive for. “It would be good if the new group could be able to push for more transparency in property transactions. It is quite difficult to find real estate figures in Macau,” she said to MDT.
Risdon is also hoping that the new group will to listen to the property representatives’ opinions. Asked if three months is enough time to finish a preliminary report, she said it would be sufficient to make an overview. However, she added, it will depend on how many people will be involved in the process.
The working group is expected to have a three-year duration that could be extended.