Resort development fuelling Macau property bubble

[MACAU] As the world's gambling capital Macau races to open more than 17,000 new hotel rooms over the next three years to keep pace with a flood of Chinese visitors, only about 4,000 affordable homes for locals are expected to be built in the same period.

With an average apartment costing more than US$500,000, the Chinese special administrative region has emerged as one of the world's costliest places to buy property, outranking neighbouring Hong Kong, where prices are already among the most expensive in the world.

Prices in Macau are forecast to rise 10-20 per cent this year and the situation looks set to worsen as Macau's new crop of mega resorts open.