Macau Urban Renewal Limited (MUR) visited the Industry and Commerce Association of Macau Northern District (AICZNM), and was warmly received by the association’s president Wong Kin Chong, director-general Ma Kin Cheong and chair of the supervisory board U Cheok Un. During the meeting, MUR Chairperson of the Board of Directors Peter Lam Kam Seng, Vice-Chairperson Leong Keng Seng, Senior Architect Nick Chan Hoi Wa and Urban Planner Joyce Tam Hoi Ian gave a presentation on the local area plan for Iao Hon Estate.
Lam said that over the two years since its establishment, MUR has been actively supporting and promoting urban renewal in Macau. The redevelopment of Iao Hon Estate has many types of complicated issues that require time to solve, including the consolidation of ownership, rehousing and moving back after redevelopment, of which the details are being discussed with property owners so as to work it out together. The project’s redevelopment plan adopts the concepts of ‘stock optimisation’, vertical city and walkable neighbourhood, where the whole area is connected by a pedestrian network. Commercial space as well as parking and community facilities would be added to make the neighbourhood a comfortable place to live in.
In order to speed up the redevelopment process, MUR’s plan is to redevelop the area one step at a time, by giving the block of housing, whose property ownerships are more complete, priority to redevelopment. Lam pointed out that MUR would continue to listen to what residents from the neighbourhood and the community think about redevelopment, adding that he hopes to keep a close contact with AICZNM to connect with the neighbourhood’s property owners and foster good communication with the households so that urban renewal could move forward smoothly.
During the visit, Wong praised MUR’s hard work and effort, adding that he was concerned with the living conditions of residents in Iao Hon Estate as the buildings there are ageing and don’t have a property owners’ association, the lack of maintenance of the building systems including water, electrical and sewers has led to very poor hygiene environment. The occurrence of spalling and water leakage, public safety and hygiene are also concerning. Wong said that residents see Iao Hon as an old neighbourhood that is in dire need of redevelopment that will require overcoming many challenges during the process, such as reaching a consensus, and responding to property owners’ demand to move back to the original location of their shop units, allocation of units and bearing the construction costs.
The meeting was also attended by the AICZNM Vice Presidents Rainbow Lei Choi Hong, Lio Kun Fai, Leong Si Iao, Lao Lok Nam, Wong I Mun, Sou Heng Fai, Ng Ngai San, Wong Kong Ioi and Chou Sai Cheong.
