Mandalay City Development Committee has given the owners of undeveloped plots in the city until the end of this year to build a house on the land or face having it confiscated.
MCDC said the radical order, announced in the state-run Mandalay newspaper on January 28, had been introduced because it says vacant plots “slow the city’s development” and create administrative problems, such as trespassing.
It also appears mostly designed to combat property speculation, which has driven prices of even small plots in the city above US$1 million. U Zaw Win said the focus would be on the city’s southeastern fringe – the section of Chan Myar Thar Si township commonly referred to as myothit, or “new town”.
“We will confirm and announce again in the newspaper what kind of houses and fences [owners will be required to build]. This order is mainly aimed at plots in the southeast of town,” U Zaw Win, the head of the committee’s Buildings and Warehouses Department, said on January 29.
In the announcement, MCDC said the houses had to be built by the end of December. After that, the committee’s inspection team would confiscate plots that it finds do not have houses.
“If the plan says owners have to build strong buildings and fences, it will create difficulties for those who hold vacant plots just for investment,” said freelance property broker U Aung Win from Chan Mya Thar Si township.
U Zaw Win said MCDC had announced a similar plan in 2006 but implementation had failed.
The owners of some vacant plots got around the order by building cheap bamboo shacks, which he said were “hard to describe as houses”.
Meanwhile, MCDC has also announced a plan to build up to 5000 low-cost apartments.
U Zaw Win said the apartments would measure 680 square feet.
“We are still asking for architectural designs from construction companies registered with the department,” he said.
The apartments will be built between Yuzana Road and the Mandalay-Pyin Oo Lwin railway line in Chan Myar Thar Si township. Each four-storey building will have 16 apartments, with each 34 foot by 20 foot apartment containing two bedrooms, a prayer room, living room, kitchen and bathroom. Gardens will be built between the buildings, he said.
“The designs of the construction companies will be mixed to create an ideal design,” U Zaw Win said.
Source: Myanmar Times
