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Young people say high cost of living is impacting ability to get piece of the rock

by Barbados Today
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The dream of homeownership appears to be a fleeting illusion for many of this country’s young people who have identified the cost of houses, land and the terms and conditions of mortgages as a major deterrent.

These were some of the sobering findings of a recently completed survey commissioned by the Ministry of Youth, Sports and Community Empowerment as part of the government’s efforts to craft a New Youth Policy.

The research, which obtained the views of 2100 youth through surveys and focus groups, concluded that the provision of more affordable housing solutions and financial instruments would help with attaining the commonly shared goal.

“Seventy-eight per cent of young people in the survey indicated that they prefer to own their own home rather than rent, but an almost equal percentage noted that home ownership is too expensive and onerous, partly due to the terms and conditions from the financial institutions, when going for a mortgage,” Professor Dwayne Devonish, who conducted the research in collaboration with Dr Lawrence Nurse, revealed.

“More than 50 per cent of the youth called for a reduction of the cost-of-living so that owning land or a home becomes a practical and a possible reality,” he added.

Late last month, Prime Minister Mia Mottley declared that her government was on a mission to reduce and/or eliminate the need to rent houses in the “home ownership democracy” which she intended to create.

“From the time [rent] money leaves your pocket, it is dead, but if you take that same money and spend it on a mortgage, you are getting back equity and you can go back and borrow on the house years later,” said PM Mottley.

“We do not want people paying R-E-N-T as far as possible in this home ownership democracy. If we are going to make sure that happens, then we need to create the environment, which is what we are doing. Let this be the appetiser for what is to come,” she added.

But equally concerning, according to Professor Devonish, were complaints from 89 per cent of the respondents that even the prospect of renting a “decent” home is difficult in the current environment.

“When it comes to renting a decent home, we’re not talking about a family living in a square box, we are talking about a decent home, many young people can’t find a decent home for a family of three persons or probably even two persons that they can live comfortably within their financial space,” the UWI Professor of Management and Organisational Behaviour explained.

Among the suggestions tabled by this country’s youth to address the housing challenges are widespread educational campaigns to address financial illiteracy. Others called for more lenient and flexible prerequisites for the provision of loans and mortgages.

“Governments should provide loans which are specifically available, acceptable and affordable for youth so that they are able to purchase a house or purchase land,” said Professor Devonish, who was quoting the findings.

“A government should have its own financing vehicle that will provide more affordable terms for young people, creating more opportunities for rent-to-own housing programmes.

“So the recommendation is teaching young people about financial planning, debt management, investing, the various financial avenues and vehicles that they can use to either create value for themselves or to acquire property,” Devonish added.

The researchers examined 11 priority action areas in conducting the random surveys across the 30 constituencies that included face-to-face interviews in at-risk communities. Wards at the boys’ and girls’ sections of the Government Industrial School were also included.

Other findings from the research included a general consensus that while the current educational system contributes to youth development, young people are often ill-prepared to enter the world of work.

Areas of entrepreneurship, especially through sports, arts, culture, agriculture were also identified as grossly underserved by the existing systems of empowerment.

“The point that was made from the majority of the youth was that arts and culture need to be better incorporated within the national curriculum. It is not given its due attention in the curriculum,” said Devonish.

“As you would imagine, the orange economy deals with the creatives, and if you are saying that you want these jobs in the creative or the orange economy, it means that the educational machinery has to be ready to produce the programmes, to provide the skills in those individuals so that when those jobs are created even from outside, you have a labour force with the skills that can take up those jobs. So we have to get very serious about arts and culture and those were the sentiments shared by the youth.

“The majority of the youth acknowledged the importance of implementing youth programmes but believe that they should have greater voice, more representation, involvement and participation in the decision-making processes nationally, sitting on boards, committees and associations at the national level,” he added. kareemsmith@barbadostoday.bb

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