Macau | City could reference Hong Kong’s property cooling measures – economist Joey Lao

Macau (MNA) – The city could reference Hong Kong’s property cooling measures that were previously not implemented by Macau, suggested the director of the Macau Economic Association (ACEM), Joey Lao Chi Ngai, on the sidelines of an award ceremony of an essay competition on Saturday.

Also a legislator appointed by the Chief Executive, Mr. Lao said measures could still be implemented by Macau, even if some of the measures did not work for Hong Kong.

He noted that it is hard to predict housing prices given the many factors that can affect them, such as economies of other regions.

“The only thing that we can do is to supply more, like the public housing,” said Mr. Lao, while agreeing that economical housing units should not flow into the private market even if units have passed the re-sale ban period.

According to the current law, economical housing units cannot be transferred or re-sold for 16 years from the date of the issuance of the license.

“Because otherwise it will never be enough, even if the Macau SAR Government keeps on building public houses,” said Mr. Lao.

With the city as an open port, Mr. Lao pointed out that anyone around the world could invest in Macau’s housing, and as such it is very difficult to predict the exact demand for housing by local residents.

Regarding the so-called group ‘sandwich households’ who are unable to purchase private houses or apply for public housing, Mr. Lao said the boundary of this group will shift when more public housing units are supplied.

“I believe the supply of public housing will increase substantially in the coming years,” remarked the legislator.

Meanwhile, Mr. Lao revealed that ACEM has received over 400 papers over the past seven years of holding the essay writing competition.

The competition invites students and the public to submit their essays regarding issues relating to the city’s economy.