They urged the government to come up with a solution so that they will also be eligible to buy a “home swap” flat.
The Pearl Horizon pre-sale buy- ers made the appeal during a press conference at the joint branch of- fice of lawmakers Mak Soi Kun and Zheng Anting in Taipa. Mak did not attend the press conference which was hosted by Zheng.
Early this month, Macau Ur- ban Renewal Limited, a newly- established company fully owned by the government, announced that Pearl Horizon pre-sale buyers who want to buy a unit in the “home swap” project on the Pearl Horizon plot will have to file their applica- tions from June 17 to August 16, and those who fail to apply during the period will be disqualified from buying one.
During yesterday’s press confer- ence, Zheng said that over 100 pre- sale buyers are not eligible to buy a “home swap” unit because they “failed to verify their property own- ership”.
Mothballed since 2015
The ill-fated Pearl Horizon resi- dential project has been mothballed since December 2015 when its pro- visional land concession expired. The government then announced the annulment of the site’s provi- sional land concession in January 2016. The project’s developer – Polytex – then sued the government over the land concession’s cancel- lation. Since then, dozens of dis- gruntled pre-sale buyers have held a string of protest rallies and repeat- edly petitioned the government over their plight.
The Land Law, which came into force in March 2014, stipulates that provisional land concessions cannot be renewed upon their expiration if their leaseholders fail to finish de- veloping the respective plots of land within a maximum concession pe- riod of 25 years.
Based on a ruling by the Court of Final Appeal (TUI) in May last year which turned down the project developer’s appeal against the gov- ernment’s cancellation of the site’s provisional land concession, the government first announced its pro- posed solution to the long-running Pearl Horizon row during a press
conference at that time, in which it said that it would repossess the plot where the abandoned Pearl Horizon project is located and that it planned to develop a “home swap” housing project on the site with some of the project’s units to be set aside for Pearl Horizon pre-sale buyers to purchase.
In order to get the project on the ill-fated Pearl Horizon plot off the ground, the government last year proposed a bill on its temporary housing and “home swap” schemes for residents affected by the future urban renewal process. The bill was passed article-by-article in its final reading by the legislature in April this year and took effect later that month. While the law is about regulating the development of the government’s temporary housing and “home swap” housing projects in general, it includes a specific ar- ticle that apparently aims to solve the long-running Pearl Horizon row.
Article 12
Article 12 of the law states that pre-sale buyers of private residential projects that were initially to be built on sites whose provisional land con- cessions expired so that the buildings could not be constructed are also eli- gible to buy “home swap” units.
However, according to Article 12 of the law, only pre-sale buyers who have registered for property ownership for the units they pur- chased from the developer are eli- gible to buy a “home swap” unit.
Zheng said yesterday that the legal registration for ownership was not mandatory when the Pearl Hori- zon pre-sale buyers purchased their pre-sale units in 2011 and 2012. Zheng noted that the current law on the sale and purchase of pre-sale property units came into force in 2013, according to which pre-sale buyers must register for property ownership for the units that they have purchased from the developer.
Zheng said that even if the pre- sale buyers who have not registered for property ownership want to reg- ister now, it would be impossible for them to do so because the Pearl Ho- rizon plot’s provisional land conces- sion had already expired. He said that, in other words, the pre-sale buyers who did not register their ownerships are no longer able to be identified as property owners because the plot no longer belongs to the developer.
“Despite the fact that we have proven that we paid the stamp duty for Pearl Horizon pre-sale units and have the home purchase contracts showing we have legally purchased the pre-sale flats, they [the govern- ment] still denied our applications for the purchase of the home swap unit because we did not register the property ownership,” a female buy- er said during the press conference.
Zheng pointed out that the leg- islature’s 3rd Standing Committee failed to notice the “loophole” when reviewing the bill on the temporary housing and “home swap” schemes, and during the committee meetings government officials did not provide any information either concerning a solution to the matter.
Zheng said that he has received 30 complaints about the predica- ment. Zheng said he wished that the government could adopt a “lenient” approach towards this kind of Pearl Horizon pre-sale buyers when dealing with the situation – by allowing the Pearl Horizon pre-sale buyers who did not register their property owner- ship but had already paid the stamp duty and are holding a home purchase contract to buy a “home swap” unit.
Lawmaker Zheng Anting (centre) and around a dozen Pearl Horizon pre-sale buyers speak to the media during yesterday’s press conference about their ineligibility for the government’s ‘home swap’ scheme, at Zheng’s joint office with fellow legislator Mak Soi Kun in Taipa. Photo: Prisca Tang
