The proposed cancellation of the monthly parking passes in public parking lots will spike the rents in private parking spaces by up to half, said an agent specialising in such transactions .

"The measures will create more demand for private parking spaces ,pushing up the rents by about 30-50 per cent in short-run ," explainedChan Lik ki,general manager of CarparKing Co .Ltd. The monthly rent for a parking space for private cars now stands at MOP2,000-2,500(US$250-312.5),he said.

The government announced in April that they are going to cancel the monthly passes in 11 public car parks , together with a hike in parking charges , as the first step in curbing the growth in car numbers by the expedient of increasing the cost of keeping a car .Over 1,900 private cars and nearly 500 motorcycles will be affected by the cancellation of the passes ,while the hourly rate of about 10,000 public parking spaces will increase from MOP3 to MOP6 during the daytime , the government remarked .

Mok Soi Tou ,acting department chief of Transport management at the Transport Bureau ,stressed in May that the administration has no timetable regarding when such changes will come into force.

The authorities would pay attention to "the interest of all parties ," he added. However, the cancellation has caused over 200 affected monthly pass holders to from a concern group. "We will soon schedule a meeting with Secretary for Transport and Public Works Raimundo do Rosario to exchange our opinions ," said Victor Lei Kuok Fai , one of affected pass holder.

"Since Secretary Rosario has mentioned this initiative, the rent for private parking spaces near Nam Van and San Ma Lo has increased to MOP3,600 a month ," he argued. "The government has not considered the fact that many housing projects in the area [of the 11 affected public parking lots] are old and do not provide parking spaces ."

Indeed, the number of parking spaces has failed to catch up with the growth in number of cars. The number of parking spaces for private car numbers, or 22,555, over the same time period, government data shows. The gas is even larger for motorcycles –there were 3,397 parking spaces in newly completed housing projects between 2011 and 2014, compared with the hike of 18,486 in the number of motorcycles.

Mr. Chan expects the price for parking spaces will remain stable due to the uncertain economic outlook, but there will be a 30 per cent hike in the number of transactions.

"The market has remained quiet since the middle of last year when the gaming industry has turned southbound," he said. "Some prospective buyers have accumulated certain buying powers and the announcement [of the cancellation of the monthly passes] has served as a trigger for them to consider purchasing parking spaces [for investment or end-use]."

But Mr. Chan noted that the rents and prices of parking spaces would take a beating in the long run if the administration introduced more curbs. "If Macau looks at the examples of other places setting a cap on the number of new cars, prices will immediately drop."