Gov’t to move up application process of affordable housing units

ExCo spokesperson Leong Heng Teng

The Executive Council (ExCo) has concluded its discussions on the draft bill of an Affordable Housing Law amendment, which proposed moving up the drawing process of selecting applicants, rather than first conducting a thorough review of all applicants’ qualifications.
The bill amended a section of the law, which will allow the Housing Bureau to only conduct a preliminary evaluation of all applications before starting the drawing process. The substantive examination will be held following the selection of applicants.
The bill also suggested applying the revised procedure retroactively to the current batch of over 42,000 applicants, who applied for approximately 1,900 multi-
room apartments in 2013. The ExCo spokesperson Leong Heng Teng explained yesterday that the bill would enable the Housing Bureau to process the sizeable amount of applications much faster.
“In order to thoroughly examine the current 42,000 applications according to the current law, they will need to wait until the end of 2016 for all their qualification reviews to be completed. Only after that, can they enter the drawing process; and only after drawing, can they be allowed to choose an apartment,” he explained.
“If this bill is passed by the Legislative Assembly, the preliminary evaluation will only take a month to complete, and then the drawing process can be launched immediately afterwards,” Leong said.
“I believe this is a good news to everyone,” he added. “This will allow the applicants [who are not selected] to be sooner made aware of the results and to make the best decision for themselves; it will also allow those selected to choose their apartment sooner.”
If the rules change, applicants who fail to pass the preliminary evaluation on qualification will also be included in the drawing process. Leong explained that this is to ensure everyone’s right to affordable housing. If a non-
eligible applicant successfully appeals to retain  eligibility, such a measure can avoid overthrowing or recommencing the drawing result.
The spokesperson further stated that the draft bill is only a partial amendment of the law, which is aimed at “speeding up the procedure and reducing administrative costs.” For revisions of other areas, the government is still analyzing the opinions collected in previous public consultations.
“Society has a very large demand for affordable housing, while Macau’s land is limited. Thereby the [available] affordable housing units are a resource worth cherishing, and should be better utilized. (…) The government will proceed with its full review of the Affordable Housing Law and officially propose the whole amendment as part of the next stage of the plan,” he said.