The Promised Land

More than 18,000 square metres of land previously granted to several companies have been taken back in recent months by the Macau Government as landholders have failed to develop them for their designated use.
Several of the plots were granted by the former Portuguese Administration which ruled Macau until its return to China on December 20, 1999.
In March, MSAR Executive Chief, Fernando Chui Sai On announced the government’s intention to seize 22 plots from a total of 48 parcels of land identified for return. The process began almost immediately, since when 13 plots occupying in excess of 18.000 square metres have been repossessed.
In March, the government reclaimed five plots on Taipa that it had granted to enterprises in the 1980s and 1990s for industrial use, but which have lain idle ever since.
In May, five more plots in Avenida de Kwong Tung, in Taipa, occupying 14.792 square metres, were taken back by the government because their grantees had failed to develop them for their intended purposes, primarily housing.
Also in May, the government announced that it would reclaim another three plots of land that the landholders had failed to use per their official designation. According to the Official Gazette, one of the plots is Lot 6K in ZAPE, occupying 1,636 square metres behind the Waldo Hotel, and held by Companhia de Investimento Imobiliário On Tai Lda for shops and offices.
The full story can be read in this month’s issue of Macau Business magazine, available at newsstands and online at www.magzter.com.