THe majority of participants at the government’s latest public consultation session on the sandwich-class housing scheme were concerned with the pricing strategy of the new type of housing.
The government proposes that the pricing of the housing will be proportionate to that of private housing. It will be higher than subsidized housing units, though.
However, attendees at the consultation session found the pricing strategy unconvincing. Many opposed the proposed strategy of evaluating the prices against those of private housing units, according to local Chinese media All About Macau.
They are worried that the proposed pricing strategy may not be able to cater to the needs of the sandwich-class population. In a worse case scenario, it may even increase the prices of private housing units.
A comprehensive pricing strategy, meanwhile, was counter-proposed by some attendees. It is a strategy that takes into account the costs of building and the purchasing power of buyers.
With regards to ownership transferal, some attendees thought the sandwich-class housing should permanently retain its nature of publicly-built housing. It means that they opposed the idea of allowing all sandwich-class housing units to be part of the open real estate transaction market.
Even with that said, most attendees agreed with a proposed lock-up period, with most of them considering eight to 10 years being appropriate. Some worried that the requirement for land premium before reselling sandwich-class housing units will obstruct the vertical mobility of young people.
As for how residents will be ranked in order to get a unit, some attendees showed support for the scoring system, in which the satisfaction of a criterion will earn certain points, and the higher the score, the higher the rank.
Participants also worried that there is no timetable for the Sandwich-class Housing Scheme.
The government is running the public consultation for the sandwich-class housing scheme until December 11. It has inaugurated an interdepartmental organ to administer the matter, with the Policy Studies and Regional Development Bureau taking the lead. The government has admitted that this public consultation is mainly to determine a definition for sandwich class.
“Sandwich class” was first used in Hong Kong to describe the middle-income population. By definition, this group of people is simultaneously incapable of purchasing privately developed residential units and exceeds the requirement for the “Home Ownership Scheme”, a program similar to Macau’s economic housing.
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