Cabinet is on course to stamp its approval on the National Housing Corporation’s (NHC) purchase of 350 homes from Guyanese manufacturer DuraVilla for $20 million by next week, officials revealed on Friday.
In an update on Government’s housing revolution to provide 10 000 homes over the next five to six years, NHC General Manager Ian Gill and the corporation’s resident planner Raymond Lorde said the programme was in full swing.
“That is confirmed. We are preparing the contractual arrangements, but as you know Cabinet must approve that we do the order. The monies for this will come from the housing credit fund,” Gill told reporters at a special mortgage fair hosted by the NHC for the island’s security forces, at the Police Sports Club, Weymouth, St Michael.
The houses are expected to arrive by the end of October and construction will begin thereafter. They will be made from wallaba or greenheart wood integrated with concrete board.
The project also entails pre-fabricated steel-framed emergency houses imported from China by East West Building Solutions Barbados.
According to Lorde, the point man on the 10 000 housing project, work is moving full steam ahead on seven sites.
“Major sites in terms of East West [houses] are the old Bullen Agricultural Station, 40 of those units, in St James. There is another site that we just completed at St Philip – that is River Crescent that will have a number of those units as well as some of the DuraVilla houses.
“The third site that we are looking at is at Concordia Gardens [St Philip] where we are now pursuing the road work contract that will get going as well. That is about 130-odd houses that will have a blend of possibly East West and DuraVilla and other types of developments,” he said.
Additionally, Lorde disclosed that a small site will be developed at Cliffden, St John as one of the training sites for the construction of the DuraVilla houses.
“That is about ten units that we will put in along with our guys and the contractors to come in and do the training so that when they branch out into the larger sites they will be fully au fait with the building system and what they have to do,” he explained.
Lorde added that other larger sites are in the works, including at Dodds South in St Philip, while the search is on for other lands in St Lucy and Christ Church.
“So, over the next four, five months the 350 houses from DuraVilla will be accounted for and all built out and then we will be moving on to some of the larger sites that we are doing,” he disclosed.
He named Lower Burney, St Michael; Branchbury, St Joseph; and sections of St Andrew and St Thomas as areas earmarked for housing projects.
“In terms of lands, we are covered perhaps for the next year for what we call year one into year two of the 10 000 project, and after that we will be acquiring lands or getting lands from the Government to extend the programme,” Lorde told the media.
Meanwhile, the NHC general manager said the agency has been continuing efforts to clear the backlog for housing applications estimated at more than 20 000, including just over 4 000 civil servants.
Gill assured that people in the backlog would be treated with priority even as he said that young professionals would also be given the opportunity to own their homes.
“We will be working out percentages to determine how many people from the backlog will gain from the first set of houses, how many new persons will gain that opportunity, and we are committed to those persons with disabilities across this country,” he said, adding that Cabinet has already determined that 10 per cent of all NHC housing and those by Hope Incorporated will go towards that vulnerable group.
Gill is confident that scores of Barbadians will qualify for mortgages based on the number of mortgage certificates the corporation has received but he disclosed that those who fall short will soon be able to benefit from an initiative to own their homes.
“So, within the coming months there will be legislation on rent-to-own in this country, where you will be able to live in a home and rent it for 25 up to 30 years and at the end of those 30 years, you or your family will be able to own that home,” he said. (SD)
