Chief Executive (CE) Fernando Chui Sai On said Wednesday the question of how to
increase the city’s supply of private housing will be “an important topic” for
his next government, vowing that it would study how to approve land leases for private construction projects “quickly”.
Chui’s second five-year term tenure will begin on December 20, after his generally expected re-election by a 400-member committee on August 31.
Chui, the only candidate in the chief executive election, made the pledge during a meeting with seven associations from the city’s property sector at the Macau World Trade Centre in Nape. The meeting was part of Chui’s re-election campaign.
Responding to the many concerns raised by the property sector representatives, such as a big drop in the number of private residential housing projects over the past few years and a severe lack of land leases for private property projects, Chui said the
private property market was an irreplaceable part of the city’s housing market.
He said that in the next five years his government would come up with specific measures to increase to the number of private property projects.
“As the supply of private housing units is too low, this has resulted in high property prices which affects the balance of the housing market,” said Chui.
“I think the demand-supply relationship in the housing market can be
balanced through some adjustments and I hope the next government can
work on it as soon as possible,” said Chui.
Chui added, “According to information I have there are undeveloped plots of land [in areas such as] Cheok Ka village in Taipa, Ilha Verde and Zone C and Zone D in Nam Van… [these plots of land] can accommodate many flats.”
Chui admitted that the government’s slow approval of architects’ blueprints does not help, vowing that his next administration will make a special effort to improve administrative efficiency, particularly on the approval of architectural designs.
“The next government will review how to improve administrative
efficiency… especially streamlining the procedures to approve architects’ blueprints,” Chui promised.(macaunews/macaupost)
