Foreign investment policy won’t cover land price control

Myanmar’s foreign investment by-laws will not incorporate any measures on land prices, Director General Aung Naing Oo of the Directorate of Investment and Company Administration said.

During the commercial and investment discussion between Myanmar and Thailand on December 17, Aung Naing Oo said the land price issue is a major factor in foreign investment growth. He explained that since land prices are normally determined by the market, it is difficult for the government to intervene, control, and fix the prices. The by-laws will be finalised by January 2 next year.

Earlier this month, Minister Soe Thein of the President’s Office vowed to control land prices.

“Both industrial land and condominium prices are going up. When I study how Bangkok controls their land pricing, I found that they have a committee for it. The committee determines the price. But the committee cannot do it on its own. It will have to coordinate with the government,” he said.

Soe Thein said price control committees will be formed in Yangon and Mandalay cities first. “In order to be transparent, they will publish the prices of buildings in newspapers. They will also put a vinyl of prices on the buildings. If a foreigner wants to buy a building, he can calculate it himself at current exchange rates. There should be no special treatment for foreigners, and [this method of] transparency will encourage it.”

Local businessmen are buying lands in strategic areas for capital gains from land markets, rather than setting up factories and doing business. Such manipulations have lead to nearly three-fold to seven-fold increase in land prices under the current administration, a real estate agent said.

For instance, prices in Thilawa area in Yangon in 2000 were at 40 million kyats (US$47,600) an acre; now it has reached up to 200 million to 300 million kyats ($240,000 to 360,000).

Property prices in other industrial zones like Hlaing Tharyar have also gone up, from about 150 million to 170 million kyats ($180,000 to $200,000) to 400 million kyats ($476,000) today.

 

source: Eleven Myanmar

http://www.elevenmyanmar.com/business/1801-foreign-investment-policy-won-t-cover-land-price-control