Secretary for Administration and Justice André Cheong Weng Chon, who is also the spokesman for the government’s top advisory Executive Council, has announced that the government has finished drafting a bill regulating the city’s urban renewal process, which proposes that only 80 percent of condominium unit owners will be required to agree to the redevelopment of buildings that are older than 40 years.
In Macau, currently, a building can only be redeveloped if all its condominium unit owners agree to the redevelopment.
According to Cheong, the bill proposes that the minimum proportion of condominium unit owners required to agree to the redevelopment of their building will be 85 percent for buildings that are between 30 and 40 years old.
The bill also proposes that for buildings whose demolition has been ordered by the government after they have been officially classified as dilapidated or posing a danger to public health and safety, only 60 percent of condominium unit owners will be required to agree to the redevelopment of their building.
Cheong made the announcement during a press conference at Government Headquarters on Friday.
The bill will be submitted to the Legislative Assembly (AL) in due course for debate, review and vote.
With the rapid socioeconomic development, Cheong said, Macau’s civil society has been facing “various kinds of pressure” in urban construction and development, and a rising number of buildings are ageing.
As part of its work to establish an urban renewal legal system that is suitable for Macau’s real situation, Cheong said, the government carried out a public consultation in late 2019 on the drafting of an urban renewal bill.
Cheong said that the government has now finished drafting the bill, officially known as Urban Renewal Legal System, after summarising the opinions gathered from residents during the public consultation – which was carried out from October to December 2019.
Cheong said that the bill focuses on promoting the redevelopment of old buildings, with the aim of specifically resolving the existing difficulties and legal constraints typically involved in the redevelopment of buildings in Macau.
According to Cheong, the bill proposes that condominium unit owners who want to redevelop their building will be required to hire the necessary professionals or companies in the respective sectors to draft a redevelopment plan, which will be required to lay out various details such as a demolition and construction plan and the expected demolition and construction cost.
In the case when the officially required percentage of condominium unit owners agreeing to the redevelopment of their building has been achieved, according to the bill, if the condominium unit owners wanting the redevelopment still cannot persuade the remaining condominium unit owners (i.e., those who do not agree to the redevelopment) to agree to the project, an arbitration process can be initiated in order to try to convince the remaining condominium unit owners to “participate in” the redevelopment of their building, Cheong said.
However, Cheong said, those who do not accept the arbitration process decision (i.e., those who still do not agree with the redevelopment) can appeal to the Court of Second Instance (TSI) against the decision.
Secretary for Administration and Justice André Cheong Weng Chon address Friday’s Executive Council press conference at Government Headquarters about the government’s urban renewal bill. Photo courtesy of TDM
