Macau resumes land auctions to ease the high-priced property market

The upcoming land auctions would also tackle budget deficits sustained from the pandemic  

According to Macao News, the president of Property Agents and Realty Developers of Macau William Kuan Vai Lam welcomes the announcement that the government plans to resume land auctions soon.  

Kuan says that the return of land auctions, which were last held in 2008, would not raise property prices but in turn, lead to more “transparency” for the property market. 

Chief Executive Ho Iat Seng announced the relaunch of land auctions during the Legislative Assembly last Wednesday, a day after announcing his2022 Policy Address.  

Ho mentioned that the aim of the upcoming land auctions was to tackle budget deficits and raise public revenue, as COVID-19 had heavily impacted local economies around the world.  

Nevertheless, land auctions would need to align with the needs of the residential property market, including public housing projects, said Ho.  

Ho cautioned that locals can’t afford the thousands of large, highly-priced flats that have been left vacant. Numerous potential homebuyers are seeking smaller and cheaper flats.  

Since the establishment of the Macao Special Administrative Region in December 1999, only three plots of land have been awarded to the private sector through land auctions.  

More: New commercial property loans in Macau drops 19.7% to $385M

Over the past two decades, most plots were directly granted to enterprises and organisations such as casino-hotel operators. 

In 2014,  a decree was passed that all future land concessions would be awarded by auction except when public interest is involved.