Delta bridge will lift market in Macau
The cross-delta bridge linking Hong Kong, Zhuhai and Macau will further strengthen Macau's property market, which has already been boosted by the booming economy, property agencies predict.
News that the landing point of the bridge was Perola, in the northern Areia Preta district of Macau, brought about a 10 per cent increase in property prices in the area, said Jimmy Yeung Long-ming, Midland Realty's sales director in Macau.
Early this month, a 100-member group, comprising officials and experts from Hong Kong, Beijing, Guangdong and Macau, agreed on landing sites for the proposed Pearl River Delta bridge linking Hong Kong, Macau and Zhuhai - Gongbei in Zhuhai and Perola in Macau.
The 28km cross-delta link, estimated to cost US$3.8 billion, could be opened to traffic by 2010 and would make Zhuhai and Macau just a 30-minute drive from Hong Kong.
Mr Yeung believed the bridge would shorten cross-delta journeys and encourage more Hongkongers, and perhaps mainlanders, to buy homes in Macau.
But he said that it was hard to predict exactly how high property prices would go when the bridge was completed because it was still a long time before the completion.
Noel Cheung Lai-wah, branch manager at Centaline Property Agency's Macau office, said property prices would double in a few years.
Ms Cheung said the impact of the bridge would not be limited to the northern Areia Preta area but would be on the whole of Macau because it is not a big city.
The completion of the bridge would bring huge demographical changes to the Areia Preta area, where a mixture of people at different income levels would replace a dominant presence of low-income working class, property agents predicted.
Mr Yeung said: 'In the near future there should be many new buildings rising and high-income people moving in.'
