Unfinished housing project victims ask for compensation

Approximately 50 people who claimed to have purchased properties in the Hon Fok Garden building, whose development was never finished, gathered at said building’s land plot on Friday, seeking help from the government and Hon Fok Garden developers.

The group gathered at Av. Do Dr. Rodrigo Rodrigues, where the housing project is located, asking the project’s developer for compensation.

The group said that the buyers’ situation is worse than that concerning the Pearl Horizon Project.

They remarked that the Pearl Horizon project developer still offered a compensation plan to buyers, whereas Hon Fok Garden’s developer has never communicated with buyers.

According to the demonstrators, some of them purchased a house during a pre-sale, in 1992.

Back then, they had already paid one hundred thousand patacas for the first installment.

In 1991, Kinbo Land Investment Company Limited bought the land plot for the development of Hon Fok Garden.

Later, the project’s ownership went to another land investment company, which authorized the land to be developed by one of its branch companies.

During the transfer of ownership, different developers reached out to buyers expressing their willingness to help them, although no results were ever produced.

The group said they have been notified recently that the land has once again been sold to another company.

The group hopes that the Macau government can aid buyers and urge the developer to provide a solution to the issue in order to avoid harming the rights of small buyers.

The group also observed that since Hon Fok Garden project’s issue took place before the city’s pre-sale related law came into effect, the case can not be solved by the city’s new law, and no parties have ever stepped out explaining the issue.

The developer has also been accused of ignoring buyers’ problems. One of the buyers, surnamed Kou, paid MOP460,000 for the pre-sale project in 1992.

The Hon Fok Garden project was supposed to occupy an area of 3,520 square meters, providing 116 residential units. In 1992, more than 90 units were sold, together with car park spaces involving an estimated market value of more than MOP20 million.

Previously, it was reported that the housing project did not see the start of its construction phase because the company had been involved in a judicial case. Moreover, in that time, Macau was suffering from a weak economy prior to the handover.