Property developer confident in Macau’s real estate market

Edwin Cheung, chairman of Empresa de Fomento Industrial e Commercial Concordia, S. A., said that the government’s recovery of land plots does not diminish his confidence in his next foray into real estate market development in Macau. The statement was offered on the sidelines of yesterday’s launching ceremony of the property project “Sky Oasis.”
Cheung admitted that he has always been looking for land in the city. “[…] any district is ok, even the north district, and some old parts. We are confident in [being able to] develop some high quality apartments,” Cheung said.
Recently, Zhuhai announced a change in its restrictions on house purchasing. Cheung believes that such policies will affect the prices of his projects if mainland investors move into the Macau and Hong Kong markets.
Cheung expects property prices to rise eight percent in the next couple years. “I think it [the property prices] will rise steadily, but not greatly,” said Cheung, adding that he also does not want to see the prices rise too much. Cheung advised that tremendous increases in property prices are abnormal, exemplifying his remark by alluding to the situation three years ago, when small apartments were being sold at HKD15,000 to HKD16,000 per square foot. “We don’t like abnormal prices, we like steady [prices],” affirmed Cheung.
Sky Oasis apartments range from 600 to 700 square feet in area. The apartments are characterized by an 11-foot ceiling height and spacious layout. Additionally, they come supported with an attentive and considerate 24-hour concierge and clubhouse services.
Cheung informed that the first batch of apartments will be sold for around HKD9,000 per square foot, which he believes to be “reasonable.” The properties are expected to be available for sale this weekend. 360 units in total will be put on the market in batches of 120 units each. In one month, Cheung expects to start selling larger apartments of 3,100 and 3,600 square feet. These larger properties will be sold for more than HKD30 million per unit. Cheung does not expect them to be sold within one or two weeks.
According to Cheung, the aforementioned project targets mainly the Macau market. He added that 4,000 marriages were registered in 2015, and more than 2,000 weddings already took place in the first half of 2016. He is of the belief that new families prefer to live in new homes, rather than live with parents, thus hinting that Sky Oasis could be the first choice of such couples. JZ