Zhuhai property buyers seek help from local authorities

The petitioners display a banner close to the government headquarters

Around 30 Macau residents and overseas Chinese citizens delivered a pile of letters to the Macau government headquarters yesterday, requesting support following an alleged breach of contract by a Zhuhai shopping mall.
The buyers had bought shopping units in Zhuhai’s MO MALL – located around two kilometers beyond the Gongbei Border Gate – from a consortium comprised of two companies from Zhuhai and Macau in 2012 and 2013.
One buyer, Cheong I Man, said MO MALL prices were above the market’s average but the consortium had attracted customers by guaranteeing the successful leasing of all properties in the nine years following the purchase.
The buyers then signed trust management contracts with MO MALL, entrusting the mall management with any and all rental issues.
The contract stated that rental prices should be adjusted every three years and that a reduction in prices should not exceed ten percent. The contracts came into effect June 30, 2013 and the first three-­year period ended on June 29, 2016.
However, MO MALL is now asking buyers to reduce rental prices by 50 percent, which the buyers have deemed unacceptable.
The legal representative of the Macau company is John Lo. According to the buyers, he misled them into purchasing the properties.
“We bought the properties knowing Lo’s reputation. He is a Macau businessman,” said Cheong.
Cheong said there are 700 people in total – around 200 from Macau and the rest from Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Zhuhai – facing similar issues.
The buyers have already sought out the companies who sold the properties, which in turn said they would respond soon to the buyers.
Cheong said that people expect the Macau government to help them solve the problem, namely by granting them an audience with high-ranked officials who are part of these property development companies.
“We want the company to give us the money back, the same amount as we used to buy the properties,” said Cheong.
He said two more groups of buyers had gone to the Zhuhai government and to the Hong Kong Liaison Office, asking for help. Staff reporter

One of many protests about Zhuhai property purchases

Yesterday’s protest follows several similar instances of local residents who bought properties in Zhuhai and later claimed that they had been fooled. Last month, the Macau Civil Servants Association led a group of pre-sale buyers of properties in Zhuhai’s “Hill Beyond the Sea Condominium.”
The group delivered a letter to Chief Executive Chui Sai On at the government headquarters, urging him to make “use of his political influence and formal means” to solve the problems surrounding the purchase of property in Zhuhai.
The letter was signed by over 200 buyers, who claimed that the development promoters had in 2012 and 2013 falsely advertised the condominium as a luxury venue with several amenities, such as a private club and a private forest park with a total area of 150,000 square meters.

Cheong I Man pictured wearing a mask (right) together with other petitioners