More than 500 apartments for low-income families, government staff, pensioners and others will go on sale in January in Chan Mya Tharsi township, Mandalay Region. Buyers will be selected by drawing lots, local authorities say.
The 560 apartments, in 14 five-storey buildings on a 7.67-acre (3-hectare) site in Mya Yi Nandar ward, were built by the Department of Urban and Housing Development, said U Aung Kyaw Oo, an official of the department. Construction began in March last year.
Junior government and private company staff will also be eligible to put their names into the hat.
“The Mya Yi Nandar affordable housing project was implemented in March 2015. It is intended for people who have nowhere else to live. It will be sold by drawing lots in January,” U Aung Kyaw Oo said yesterday.
Each apartment measures 567 square feet and contains two bedrooms, a living room, bathroom and kitchen. Application forms for would-be buyers go on sale on November 10 until the end of December at the DUHD offices on 66th Street, Aung Myay Tharzan township. Applicants must earn a monthly minimum of K400,000-K500,000.
“We will sell to all four kinds of buyers, with no specific quota for retired people or civil servants. Successful applicants may not resell their property during the first five years of ownership. It is a regulation to rein in quick reselling and re-renting from one tenant to another and then another,” he said.
“We plan to build more low-cost housing, but we don’t have enough land. If the government can provide land, we can build on it quickly. We’re now working with members of parliament to acquire vacant or virgin land,” U Aung Kyaw Oo added.
The new homes will sell for K22.3 million for a ground-floor apartment, K20.8 million for the first floor, K19.3 million for the second floor, K17.8 million for the third floor and K16.3 million for the fourth floor.
Buyers have the option either of purchasing through a four-month instalment scheme or a bank mortgage. Mortgage applicants must deposit a 30 percent down-payment within the first year, with the remaining 70pc payable in monthly instalments over eight years.
DUHD built the existing Mya Yi Nandar low-cost housing complex, comprising 1344 apartments, in 2014, and sold them to people whose land had been confiscated and civil servants through instalment repayments of bank loans.
One would-be buyer, a 30-year-old company employee, said, “I hope the government will build more low-cost homes to help workers starting out. We need a recommendation letter from an MP, which is a bit of a bother. Most company workers can’t afford to buy their own homes.”
Source: The Myanmar Times
