The Macau Metro Monitor, September 29th 2010

 


SANDS CHINA CLOSER TO SELLING APARTMENT HOTEL IN MACAU macaubusiness.com

The Lands, Public Works and Transport Bureau Director, Jaime Carion, yesterday said there is no law in Macau that prohibits Sands China from selling its Four Seasons apartment-hotel under a co-op scheme but Sands needs to gain government approval regarding giving the title of the apartment-hotel to a subsidiary company.  After this is approved, Sands can start implementing the co-op scheme without needing any further approvals from the government.

LESS TOURISTS VISITING MACAU IN THE MID-AUTUMN FESTIVAL macaubusiness.com

According to official figures, 460,000 tourists visited Macau during this year’s Mid-Autumn Festival, from September 22 to 24, a decline of 1.26% YoY.  The majority of visitors came from mainland China, entering Macau by the Zhuhai Border Gate.

MACAU GOVERNMENT TO CURB PROPERTY SPECULATION macaubusiness.com

According to Secretary for Transport and Public Works, Lau Sio lo, the goal is to increase affordable housing supply while raising the transaction costs for speculators.  Measures include: an increase in land supply for developers; full payment of the property transfer tax (ex. 1st-time buyers); and tightening of the LTV ratio for bank mortgages. More draft laws will be announced later this year.

CHINA PLANS TO INCREASE THE PROPERTY TAX TRIAL Xinhua News

According to Xinhua, China plans to expand the trial nationwide on a gradual basis.  China is also asking commercial banks to suspend the offer of loans to buyers of third homes and to increase the prepaid deposit requirement to 30% or higher, says Xinhua.