Real estate prices on the outskirts of Yangon are on the rise again as investors flock to buy land at the site of a controversial Southwest Yangon New City project and in Dala township, brokers say.
The new city site was popular with investors in 2014, when Yangon’s chief minister submitted plans to parliament for an earlier development. The project was halted last year due to criticism over the local government’s lack of transparency, and real estate prices stabilised.
The Yangon Region government then issued a tender to develop the Southwest Yangon New City project on a smaller plot of land in the same location last year. Land speculators, fearing another suspension, were initially slow to return. This concern has not gone away, but brokers say buyers are now appearing.
In particular, Chinese investors have been negotiating to buy the land, using Myanmar translators, they said. Foreigners cannot buy land under Myanmar law, but brokers say it is possible to get around this rule by using Myanmar proxies.
“Chinese investors have bought land on the new city project site,” said freelance broker U Kyaw Myo from Dala township. “[The investors] are also still asking brokers about land beside the Hlaing Tharyar-Twante Road.”
Brokers said buyers are a mix of companies and individuals, though would not reveal further details. None of the buyers could be reached for comment. Lawyers in Yangon have previously confirmed that foreign investors sometimes pay Myanmar citizens to buy land on their behalf.
The Southwest Yangon New City project is located on an 11,716-acre site bordered by the Pan Hlaing River, the Twante-Yangon Canal, the Hlaing River and the Hlaing Tharyar-Twante Road in western Yangon, according to an announcement in state media last year.
U Kyaw Myo said that foreign investors were also purchasing land in Dala township near the site of a planned bridge from downtown Yangon across the Yangon River to Dala.
“Myanmar citizens bought the land in their names, but the money came from Chinese investors,” he said. “Available land in Dala township has nearly all been sold, with almost no sellers left.”
Land prices in Dala township rose sharply when the government first announced details of the bridge back in 2013. Since the announcement of the Southwest Yangon New City project, Dala township land prices have doubled, reaching K70 million for 2400 square feet, brokers said.
Dala township resident Ma Hla Hla Sann said residents were not sure why Chinese and other foreign investors were buying up land, and that she had heard no new information on the Dala bridge project.
“I think prices in this township doubled because of the Southwest Yangon project,” she said. “This project had an effect on prices in Dala, Twante and Hlaing Tharyar townships. The prices won’t fall.”
A member of the Yangon Region government said authorities have not yet discovered whether foreign investors are buying land in the project areas.
“We have heard that Chinese investors and investors from other countries are buying land in these areas, and we need to check whether the money is legal or illegal,” he said, asking not to be named.
“[I believe] investors are buying the land because they want to play the market and make a profit by selling it on. Another reason may be to legalise illegal money.”
Myanmar struggles to control money laundering through its real estate sector. Last year, the Myanmar Real Estate Services Association met with international anti-money laundering organisations and warned real estate agents to stay away from suspicious transactions.
Last August, the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU), which was set up to combat money laundering, asked estate agents to report all sales worth more than K100 million. A new anti-money laundering law is still at the draft stage.
Director U Khin Maung Thant from Yangon South West Development Public Company, one of three companies that will develop the land, said he had heard investors from Hlaing Tharyar industrial zone had bought some of the land, and were asking brokers to help them buy more.
“We don’t know if they are foreign investors or not, or whether they are [laundering money],” he said.
According to the Greater Yangon Development Strategic Plan for 2040, the government will build new cities in Northeast Yangon, Southwest Yangon, Dala township, Thanlyin township, Htantabin township, Hmawbi township and Hlegu township.
The expansion project aims to accommodate 10 million people by 2040, according to Mayor U Hla Myint’s pitch to parliament last year.
The price of land between Hlaing Tharyar and Twante townships is also rising, with 1 acre going for at least K37 million and sometimes more than K100 million, as residents anticipate urban development following the new city projects.
Agent U Win Maung from Aung Real Estate said that following the Southwest Yangon New City tender announcement, land prices had risen from a maximum of K10 million per acre to K20 million.
Daw Nyo Nyo Thin, MP for Bahan township, said that the next government and representatives of the Yangon Region parliament should study the new city projects and implement them transparently.
“Everybody knows the projects have been very controversial,” she said.
Yangon South West Development Public Company, Business Capital City Development and Shwe Popa International Construction Company were awarded the tender to implement the Southwest Yangon New City project.
Quoted from mmtimes.
