Gov’t brings back ‘new housing scheme’ proposal

The CE delivered the Policy Address this week

Chief Executive (CE) Chui Sai On has announced that the “government would consider […] the feasibility of introducing a new type of public housing in order to provide the young generation with one more option [in terms of housing].”

A public consultation will be organized to debate the details of the proposal.

The CE made the announcement in response to a question by lawmaker Zheng Anting during the Q&A Session that followed the Policy Address presentation.

Chui said that the proposal is justified given the “pressure” felt by the younger generations and middle class regarding access to their own housing.

The CE raised a similar idea at last year’s Policy Address, when he said that a new housing scheme might be established to cater for the needs of younger residents who are unable to buy residential properties at inflated prices. He hinted that the new policy would not be along the same lines of “Macau Property
for Macau Residents”, which had previously been studied and dropped.

During this week’s Q&A session, the CE had responded to another question by lawmaker Chan Meng Kam on the rich-
poor gap that has mostly affected what he called the “working poor”. Chui mentioned that the bigger issue behind the phenomenon was housing and related expenses.

“In Macau, the income [necessary] to support a housing unit is, in fact, higher than what we have set [referring to the conditions in which residents can apply for social housing],” the CE said, adding that “housing is a heavy burden on family expenses. To pay for a house takes a long time. Forty to 60 percent of the income of a couple is canalized to housing.”

“The government will undertake all the efforts to reserve land plots for public and private housing, hoping that it will be a right balance that leads to a fall in prices since we consider that the prices are still very high,” he said.

In this way, the CE pledged to find better solutions for the middle class or “sandwich class”, again stating that people with an income between MOP20,000 and MOP40,000 currently cannot apply for social benefits from the government but cannot afford to buy a house.

Although no details were forthcoming on the implementation of the idea, the CE explained that “the government is preparing a public consultation document to collect society’s opinions and suggestions on this new type of public housing, with the aim of giving another option to the population.”