Myanmar real estate news

New policy elusive as YCDC restarts building permit applications


Myanmar real estate news Yangon City Development Committee has started accepting construction permit applications again after a temporary hiatus pending a new building policy. But that policy has still yet to appear, and permits can only be considered – not issued –until it does, officials have said.

The city authority stopped accepting applications on June 24, with deputy engineering department chief U Nay Win saying applications would resume after a new policy was unveiled on July 1.

Applications did resume on July 1, but the building policy is still not finished, YCDC engineering (building) department director U Than Htay said on July 5. Yangon Region government is drawing up the policy, but details of content and timing were “confidential”, he added.

The new YCDC took over at the beginning of June and faces a backlog of hundreds of applications made under the previous committee, in addition to the new applications it has started accepting.

The new committee has separated the old and new applications, and the priority is to clear the backlog before starting to consider fresh requests, U Than Htay said. YCDC is also limiting new applications to buildings of up to three storeys, detached houses and building demolition permits, he added.

“If we hadn’t restarted accepting applications then developers and entrepreneurs would face losses,” he said. “We just wanted to control things for a short period. Applications for buildings four storeys and higher will be suspended for a while longer.”

Even if the committee was to resume accepting all applications, it no longer has the power to grant permits for high-rise buildings above eight storeys, although this could change, he added.

Yangon Region government froze construction on hundreds of high-rise projects in May, and plans to re-issue permits after an in-depth review of the buildings. Almost two months after the suspension, however, only 12 buildings have been reviewed and the results have yet to be announced.

Construction industry figures have become increasingly impatient at the city-wide halt to high-rise construction and the shifts in policy, which they say are affecting everyone from ordinary workers to foreign investors.

Myanmar’s firms are facing frequent changes in rules and regulations across the construction business, said Asia Construction Company general manager U Yan Aung. This is causing difficulties for project developers, and hurting Myanmar’s economic image, he said.

“In laying down the policies for construction projects the government needs to think about the consequences for people who are relying on those projects,” he said.

The freeze on high-rise projects has hit labourers first, he added.

“They have no job and will face difficulties around food, clothing and shelter. Then the construction developers will suffer.”

Regular shifts in policies on construction and car imports were common under the previous government, which hurt local and foreign businesspeople, he added.

Although Myanmar now has a democratic government focused on economic development, frequent policy shifts and economic instability could still see some of the adventurous foreign investors that have come to do business in the construction industry leave, U Yan Aung said.

New policies should be laid down for the long-term to prevent international investors losing trust, he said.

“For example, in leaving land [on either side of a building] YCDC [originally] told us to leave 3 feet on each side, and then later 6 feet for each side,” he said. “Our company submitted an application for an eight-and-a-half storey building six months ago. Now, they are telling us to submit a design.”

Given these types of delay, construction entrepreneurs are feeling “aggrieved”, U Yan Aung said.

Translated by Khant Lin Oo and Khine Thazin Han



Quoted from mmtimes.