Real Estate Matters | The Challenges Facing Macau What is it going to take to restore confidence?

Juliet Risdon is a Director of JML Property and a property investor.
Having established the company in 1994, JML Property offers Investment Property & Homes. It specializes in managing properties for owners and investors, and providing attractive and comfortable homes for tenants.

Macau is facing some serious challenges, and these challenges will almost certainly affect property prices either directly or indirectly.
Over the coming weeks we look at some issues that should be addressed and ask what can be done.
If Macau is going to prosper in the long term and would like a healthy property market, hard questions have to be asked and hopefully answered. It’s easy to criticize, so there are also suggestions for potential solutions. Whether they are liked or not will be largely a matter of opinion.
Last week we started with the governments call for diversity. This week we look at the infrastructure of Macau and its transportation system.

Transportation
Macau is grinding to a halt.
The only method of mass transportation is by bus. However, the buses are often so crowded that they can’t stop at the designated bus stop without overloading.
Using the road system makes them slow and subject to the ever-increasing traffic jams that have now become a part of everyday life.
As for private cars, well there are way too many on the road as it is. However, who can blame a person for buying a car in Macau ? If someone is travelling frequently between Macau, Taipa and Coloane, a car is a necessity, not a luxury.
Taxis. Now rarer than a work permit, the Macau Taxi is an elusive beast. In its wisdom, the government decided to deny an extra charge for calling a yellow (telephone booking only) taxi, and subsequently that service has gone.
Finding a taxi to pick you up in Coloane is the equivalent of winning the mark six.
The light rail system. Under construction, but already a point of ridicule in the community. It has been handled in a manner that has left experienced engineers and railway contractors shaking their heads.
The government announced that there will be a ‘delay’ and have decided to work around the clock on the light rail system. This offers a glimmer of hope to the Macau population, especially after we consulted with locally based engineers last year who took the current rate of construction and applied it to the governments plans, only to end up with an estimated completion date of 2051.
However, before you start celebrating, take a look at the planned route of the light rail network and you will see that, more than anything, it is not designed to move locals around and reduce traffic. No, its designed for visitors.
The bridge from Hong Kong; Will connect Macau with Hong Kong and Guangdong by…wait for it…road! That’s right, more cars entering a system that is already overflowing.
Parking; The parking space as a species seems to be in danger of extinction. Buying a private parking space is more expensive than buying an apartment in most cities in the world.

Possible Solutions
In no particular order:
1. Increase the number of taxi licenses by at least double. The taxi license holders will complain, but increasing the amount of taxi’s will also increase the amount of people who use them because they can actually rely on getting one.
2. UBER. Allow it. Please allow it. Find a way to make the system work because it is so much better, ‘greener’, hugely in demand and desperately needed!
3. Improve the Driving License learning and test center. The quality of driving and knowledge is disgraceful. The speed limit of just over 37mph (60kmh) on most roads and the traffic jams are the only reason more people aren’t injured. Amongst other things, drivers simply do not know the correct way to drive around a roundabout.
3. Throw every possible resource at the light rail, and plan now for line extensions into populated areas to carry people to work and discourage them from using cars.
4. Like most other advanced cities and countries, issue parking permits for local residents. There are not enough car parks, parking permits allow residents the ability to park within walking distance of their home
5. Add another level to the bus system. The current bus system caters for people on a budget, and that’s important. The trouble is there are only two choices right now, pay MOP 5.00 for a bus ride or MOP300,000+ for a car! There are many people who would pay much higher transport and mini-bus rates so they can get from A to B without using a car.
6. Add a rail link to the Hong Kong-
Macau-Zhuhai bridge. Do it now, even if it means delaying the current project. In today’s age of the environment, not having a rail link and only having an exhaust spewing car option is simply irresponsible.

(To be continued)

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