![Sample our Urban Studies journals, sign in here to start your FREE access for 14 days]({"type":"image" , "src" : "/sda/110826/TOC-Subject-Sample-2021-Urban-Studies.jpg"})
Abstract
This is a review of how the Macao government helped the housing market digest its property oversupply in the early 1990s when Chinese macro-economic policy sought to control financial flows. The housing sector is one of the most significant local public revenue sources in Macao. Its collapse would seriously impact on the property sector and trigger an adverse effect on the economy of Macao. Fearing an imminent economic slump, the government was urged by various housing developers and concerned local parties to intervene and re-activate the flagging housing market. The government, for its part, had realized beforehand the need for an immediate strategy to stimulate the market, and thus launched and implemented the 4 per cent Interest Rate Subsidy Scheme to first-time homebuyers in August 1996. After six years of handing out subsidies to first-time homebuyers, the scheme ended in June 2002, having had an obvious positive impact on the property market: a revived local market dynamic as well as a boost in investment.