EDITORIAL
For several decades now, Barbados has been faced with an ever-increasing demand for housing that it has found difficult to satisfy. Even in these tough economic times where incomes are stagnant, and money is tight, with many financial institutions offering 100 per cent mortgages and low interest rates, those who can afford it are still seeking to own their piece of the rock.
In most cases, that takes care of those in the upper income and upper-middle income brackets, but those in the lower-middle income and lower income brackets still struggle to find housing solutions they can afford, and it falls to Government in such cases to help meet the demand. This has led to a long waiting list at the National Housing Corporation (NHC) and successive governments have tried to bring it down, but even as they have updated the lists and struck those off who have found housing privately, died and those no longer interested, it has remained in the thousands, and that is simply because there is not a single Barbadian who does not have a dream of owning a piece of this little rock.
But if we are to face facts, then we must recognise that the land space is limited, and the idea of homeownership as traditionally conceived in the minds of Barbadians will probably have to change. In that respect, it is safe to say that the Ministry of Housing, Lands and Rural Development, the NHC and certainly private developers, have their work cut out for them in terms of educating Barbadians about that necessary change in mindset, and to get their buy-in as it relates to future housing development.
The cold hard fact is that those of us wishing to own property in this country, will sooner rather than later have to embrace other types of housing solutions, other than single family dwelling houses. As we weigh providing housing solutions for Barbadians against our agricultural needs and other infrastructural development, it seems more likely than not that condominium type housing will become more commonplace in this country. We have seen the previous government go the route of building high-rise apartment complexes, and it is unclear if the present administration will continue on this route, as they, when in Opposition, said the rents charged for those housing solutions were priced too high for low income earners. Perhaps what Government should seek to do with those properties, and any more like them that may be built, is not rent them, but sell them and institute a homeowners’ association fee that persons would pay on a monthly basis, for the upkeep of the buildings and their immediate surroundings. It is a concept that people would likely readily embrace if they are made to understand that it is perhaps the only way some of them will own real property in this country.
But we can merely speculate at this time, as not much has been said since coming to office of Government’s plan to meet the housing demands in this country. The previous administration left some housing projects either unfinished or unoccupied, and Barbadians in need of housing would no doubt like to know what will become of those properties. With quite a number of houses across the island also being derelict or unoccupied at this time, this is an area too that the Ministry of Housing’s new leadership could also look at to meet the housing needs of persons.
Certainly, it would not be farfetched for Government to offer some kind of concessions to those homeowners, to facilitate repairs to their properties in order to get them back on the market either for sale for rent.