Cross-ministry approach planned to tackle homes crisis
(CNS): At least four ministries from the PACT Government will be involved in a wide number of plans and policies aimed at tackling the emerging housing crisis impacting Caymanians from all walks of life, as the real estate sector has created an unsustainable situation relating to property prices across the Cayman Islands.
Among the proposals set out in the budget, government plans to sell sub-divisions on crown land at cost, use the Cayman Islands Development Bank for home loans and create transitional accommodation for the homeless.
In addition to the housing ministry’s efforts to start building as many as 100 affordable homes, the ministers responsible for lands, social affairs and finance will all be involved in projects aimed at helping people realise the dream of home ownership.
In his Budget Policy Statement, Premier Wayne Panton spoke directly about the problem that development has caused for ordinary people when it comes to finding a home. “Caymanians have always proudly striven to own their own home,” he said.
Until recently, this has generally been attainable but things have changed, he said, adding, “Housing and land prices have soared out of reach for most Caymanians, including our well educated young professionals.”
With people sleeping in their cars unable to afford rent, and a starter two-bed home costing more than $400,000, when the average salary is around $3,000 a month, he said that provision was being made in this budget to give families access to decent housing through a variety of projects and policies as part of the PACT Government’s goal to place social justice issues at the centre of its priorities.
Jay Ebanks, the minister responsible for housing, said it was a major priority and the government would empower the National Housing and Development Trust to increase the number of homes it builds over this budget. He said he aimed to build at least 75 affordable homes, but had his eye on a hundred, over the coming budget period and would be looking for new land in George Town.
The government has set aside another $10 million for the housing trust in 2022 and just over $9 million in 2023 but it will also be tackling the housing problem through a number of other polices.
The PACT will be continuing and expanding the government-guaranteed home-assisted mortgages and will be lowering the cost of borrowing through new home loan programmes at the Cayman Islands Development Bank, which falls under the finance ministry and is getting an additional $4.5 million this budget to cover debts.
The ministry is also planning to reduce stamp duty on land for Caymanians and there are plans to reform the Foreclosures Act to make it more equitable.
The minister responsible for lands, Julianna O’Connor-Connolly, has announced plans to use crown land already purchased or newly acquired land to create sub-divisions across the islands to sell to local people at cost to enable them to build their own homes.
The minister revealed plans for what she described as the first planned community on land acquired for the public in East End, where 40 house lots will be made available and preference given to residents in the district. She explained during her budget speech last week that it was separate from the affordable homes programme.
“We will be rolling out an affordable residential land lot programme,” she said. “It will focus on Caymanians who wish to own their very own parcel of land, to construct their own house.”
The minister added, “It is anticipated to fill a gap which we all see today where we have Caymanians that don’t qualify for affordable home programmes due to their income being too high but not high enough to purchase a home in today’s market.”
She said the government will acquire new or use existing land in all of the districts to create these sub-divisions with the necessary roads and other infrastructure, and they will each include at least one lot for a commercial business and a community centre.
There will also be provision for the social affairs ministry to build rental homes for indigent and homeless people. Located across from what is to become a new district public beach, she said this pilot programme, to be launched early next year, was an opportunity to create a well planned out new urban community.
Meanwhile, Social Development Minister André Ebanks outlined plans to address the trap that is causing homelessness. He said people get displaced from their homes when it takes the Needs Assessment Unit too long to help them.
Then when they do get the assistance, they are unable to find a landlord who will rent to them, as the stock of homes that NAU can access is shrinking and these people have nowhere to go. He therefore promised to find housing that government can acquire to rent to those in need.
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Category: development, Government Finance, Local News, Politics
I asked about these and was told to “wait until after the next election”, about 2 elections ago.
As usual with all of our Governments I’ll believe it when I see it, and I won’t be holding my breath in the meantime.
Where is “Dr” Frank when you need him most?
If they really wanted to fix these problems they would expropriate all the unfit homes in certain areas, knock them down and rebuild proper housing. The could make them multi level complexes so that everyone that had a property taken would get a brand new safe home and there would be plenty to sell to others looking to enter the property market. Building more individual homes to fall into disrepair is not the answer.
CIG has done this every few years and have never failed to fail. Watch and remember what, who and how this works this time. Then you will understand that this is just another way for CIG to spend the money on itself again. Then quickly forget what you have learned again. Then Blame Dart, Expats, developers, the UK, and everyone else that you have ben trained to hate again. Then do it all over again. Congratulations. You have won the right to be Caymanian again.
I cannot agree with this. In the 80s a government of the time formed the Housing Development Corporation. Monies were raised from the financial community by the issue of debentures. Mrs Angela Miller was the manager of the corporation that met on a regular basis.
Initially mortgages had been given to cronies of the Bodden government but with a new committee we put that to a stop. We never had a bad debt and our accounts were always the first statutory board accounts to be completed and audited. Ezzard was the chairman for a while before Dan Scott took over. Following that the wise government of the day instructed that the mortgage portfolio be sold. You can guess the name of that government leader of the day.
Who is responsible for allowing the real estate sector to create an “unsustainable situation relating to property prices across the Cayman Islands”?
Lets just turn Barkers into a trailer park. It already full of trash.
Don’t you know Dart Owns that… There is very little crown land there.
Yeah. Only 100 acres or so is crown owned in the Barkers area.
Just be done with it and start building 10- 15 story tenements/council flats or whatever you want to call them.
Land is what’s expensive here.
Provide 24 hour security and evict anyone who urinates/ poos in the elevator.
At the end of the day it’s part of the price you pay for development. These houses must be made sustainable and green with solar panels and mini grids or else the occupants could find themselves back seeking assistance from social services..
With no distespect. Building septic tanks in front of the homes looks so disgraceful. Spoil the beauty of the homes.
That could actually be the back of the home
No shit
10/10 pun
With no disrespect, why did you assume that the photo shows the front of the home? It is most certainly the back of the home.
With no disrespect. Build the bedrooms with sufficient enough space so that the families can turn around in. Also fill the land the right way build the houses with patios so if families want too sit outside they will not get wet from the rain. And build the houses high off of the ground from any type of flooding. Put walls around all homes so that everyone in each household can have their own privacy.
With no disrespect…beggars can’t be choosers…so if you want all the nice extras: work hard, save money, get educated, go to university at night if necessary, buy small first, invest wisely…but if you want CIG to deliver a house you may have to be ok with what you get!
When did going to university become a prerequisite for home ownership..
Please, please, please. Do not create large subdivisions of these homes. Create 6-10 home subdivisions. These are much more likely to remain as a nice family environment.
.. yes but low level suburban sprawl is
the last thing Cayman needs
Place a hefty tax on overseas buyers when purchasing units if they will not reside in them. This bubble is sure to pop, just like all bubbles – but in order to maintain a sustainable market, local residents should receive a considerable discount and we should have fewer absentee landlords resulting in a healthier supply and demand ratio, which is what will be needed in the next coming years, – otherwise, we will all be sleeping in our cars.
There already is a healthy tax on foreign buyers. It’s called Stamp Duty. On a 7 mile beach condo it can be some $1/2 million. Then there’s the import duty on their furniture and car.
Do people seriously think that foreigners buying condos and luxury homes is the reason that starter homes are so expensive?
Just go ahead and ban them and see how quickly the jobs disappear.
How about lumber prices that have internationally gone up by 50%? And energy prices that are also outside our control.
Take ANY International city and most people can’t live in prime areas. Not in Manhattan. Not in Mayfair. Not on the Peak (in Hong Kong) not in the posh parts of Paris. Nowhere.
What’s needed are better roads. A flyover at the Hurley’s roundabout for example so people can live in less expensive areas without being stuck in world-class traffic.
CIG spend 1/2 Billion $ every year on wages.
$7200 per resident
8.13am Well said but what do they spend on the medical expenses of the Civil Service horde and all their spouses and dependents?.
Stop building single family homes for the purposes of affordable housing. Multi-unit dwellings are far more economical and can get a lot more people into home ownership.
Affordable means
Cheaper labor, materials, fixtures and fittings, financing, land and fill cost, import duties, planning and infrastructure fees, to name a few.
At a minimum, Reduce the above costs, then you can have ‘affordable’.
You forgot 25% contractors cut.
‘”… aimed at tackling the emerging housing crisis impacting Caymanians from all walks of life,’
more people into debt, congratulations.
We do not need a “projects” style
Solution to housing! I’ve lived near many of these and they become controlled by criminals and are a haven for drugs and prostitution. Not what Cayman needs.
Affordable homes integrated into already existing communities is the best way to achieve this. That way the homes become part of an already existing community and the residents adopt the rules and customs of those around them and not the other way round.
We really need to be careful how we tackle this problem and Learn from the mistakes of others
Four Ministries working “together” proves we have some incompetent Ministers. Why can’t the Minister of Housing not handle on his own? Oh, pardon me, he didn’t finish school and is widely known as being inept for the Minister seat he holds.
Jon Jon to the rescue.. Sweeps in with cape to cover all ministries as Secretary…
CIMA is extremely aggressive on source of wealth for trust companies. Where is their oversight on foreigners plowing millions into real estate without any due diligence requirements??? It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out what is going and why real estate has gone insanely expensive so high that it’s laughable.
Realtors on island do nothing and make millions that’s another place to start hacking down cost
Commissions are controlled by CIREBA. A real estate agent can’t charge a lower commission and belong to CIREBA.
Price fixing like this is illegal in the USA. I know this because I used to be a Realtor in Florida.
1% of the very high commission goes to CIREBA. It’s a racket.
Yet it takes almost two months to open a bank account for a locally owned small business at a local bank. They kill you ejth forms and declarations, you even have to submit a business plan just to open a simple checking account. This system is not for Caymanians
The Know Your Customer regulations cover real estate transactions and are very strict. The idea that foreigners are plowing millions into real estate without any due diligence is utter tripe.
Pact..take back some the land dart owns or aquire it at cost?
Take back? Acquire at cost? Live on which planet?
End the CIREBA cartel. Fix the dump, Wayne.
So break god knows how many laws to do so. Yeah that’ll end well.
Sure. Let’s go Communist all the way.
And I’m no big fan of Dart.
Miami Beach real estate has a 1% tax that goes into their homelessness issues. CIG could scale back CIREBA commissions to cover quite a lot more.
Not USA
Cireba should be investigated
and banned not scaled back.
Can CNS please define equitable? Equitable according to who?
Equitable is equivalent to what you or government understands is equitable, why you asking CNS.
8:35 You forgot to say, “dumb ass”.
We have built 2 bed 2 bath apartments for 150k.
Couldn’t find buyers, since they spent their money on car stereo and car loan . With no savings at all, don’t even bother to walk into a bank for a mortgage.
The problem are the buyers. Especially young caymanians.
Please tell me where these apartments are advertised for sale. A 2bed in today’s market for $150k is good deal so please let me know. Thanks!
Maybe not all
You sound like an armchair developer
Real estate commissions are legalised daylight robbery! Fix the damn dump too.
Real estate charges do not apply to “affordable housing”.
I call bullsh!t to your claim. Why not specify which units are/were for sale for 150k? Myself, along with many other young Caymanians would be very interested to know.
Where have you built them? I am very interested to know.
I am a young Caymanian with a six-figure job offer from abroad, looking to return home and start a family at some point. I would love to know where these kinds of prices are being advertised.
Game and match! Take the job offer from abroad, the poster is messing. Take the six figure job offer abroad where you are already living.
Anonymous 10 @ 5:29pm – You built 2bd/2bth apts for $150K? Great! The real question is what were you or your agent asking for them? I bet it wasn’t anywhere under $200K – nor even close. I don’t recall seeing any new 2bed apts on the market for that price (and I’m actively looking). Maybe you wrote in from some place where construction costs are no more than $100 psf!?
That’s the real problem – greedy sellers and agents (I’m not calling you out but many others) who try to maximize their profits!
In what district? What do you rent them for? I am a single young woman, making $2800 per month, paying $1400 per month for a very simple one bedroom, safe neighbourhood . The best I can do. With food, CUC, internet and water, I can barely afford the gas to get to work. SMH
Call you out on that one…your attempt at humour or sarcasm didn’t reach the blow holes.
5.29pm TROLL
Four ministries will work together?🤣🤣🤣🤣
That s the funniest thing I have heard in a long time.
That’s why saviour Jon Jon crossed to run around for all of them. How much?
Glad to see something is being done but this is hardly an “emerging” problem.
For decades this issue has and continues to exist where the average Caymanian cannot afford the highest cost of living in the world.
Wages remain stagnant while prices continue to rise, simple economics.
All brought to you by a government that has for a decade refused to follow the immigration laws designed and intended to mitigate against what is happening.
Governments
The Government has been in for less than a year.
There IS a serious problem.
As we came out of lockdown I was expecting property prices to fall and transaction volume to slow.
Instead things went crazy and prices skyrocketed. It has tempered off somewhat now though.
I am often asked – what’s with the market? Truth is, despite an education in economics and a previous career in credit banking, I cannot understand it.
All I know is: this is a real crisis that we will be witness to.
A 20 year 3 bed apartment on Fairbanks Rd just sold for CI$525k! Before we even contemplate the lower income bracket, imagine: a young professional couple with a couple of kids. For most- unattainable.
Yes – I own a real estate company , and yes, I am an easy target for trolls.
Truth is, I am seriously concerned for my People.
I hope the government buys land and employs other measures to help young people attain ownership.
Education in economics and don’t understand the basics of supply and demand…
The fiat currencies are collapsing destroying your purchasing power
ALL really bad ideas.
With limited land, why don’t we convert one of the old office buildings in Town into a housing complex?
Or, let’s utilize our canals and marinas by having houseboats or liveaboards. We have to be assertive, innovative and creative if we want to resolve the housing crisis.
10 @ 3:08pm – Fair enough. Applaud your thinking beyond your nose but some of those options will be “the projects” in a few years. Houseboat squatters? Hmmm… a concept. Sounds like SE Asia.
The wealthy that live on the canals will never allow it. This idea is DOA
Yes, let’s turn downtown into housing projects. That should be great for tourism.
I would prefer safe housing downtown over cruise ship tourism
Converting Shipping Containers is also an idea. I’ve seen some beautiful homes made from these.
That was supposed to happen years ago, revitalize George Town with apartments above office buildings, greenery, restaurants, bars. Yeah right, who buying up land – wonder what the just demolished house on Smith Road bought by government going to be used for. Owner must have got a good price. They creeping all over and few know.
Think that would happen without government or rich man opposition.
Not in the tropics where it’s +90 degrees year around.
Oh come on. How’s the CIG supposed to make money out of a scheme like that?
Small modular buildings that can withstand storm damage and also gunfire are available now. No construction needed. Just land and utilities
That was supposed to happen years ago, revitalize George Town with apartments above office buildings, greenery, restaurants, bars. Yeah right, who buying up land – wonder what the just demolished house on Smith Road bought by government going to be used for. Owner must have got a good price. They creeping all over and few know.
Why doesn’t put in place a law similar to those in large cities with same development issues where developers have to do 70/30 luxury vs affordable or not get approval. As well as limit (not stop) foreigners being able to purchase property. The market is insane especially in the last 18 months and as stated in the article neither home ownership nor renting is attainable for many when coupled with the other high cost of living factors.
we already have the laws you speak of. Having more than two rental properties requires a Trade and Business License (whether you are Caymanian or not). The problem, as usual, is we do not enforce our laws. Any of them.
I am not referring to owning multiple rental properties and need for a trade and business license, that is not the issue at hand. I am referring to developers who want to build luxury properties as is the case in the vast majority (which are obviously not targeted at the local market) would need to allocate 30% or more of the development to affordable housing and the local market or not get planning approval. We do not have laws such as that. Additionally limiting foreign ownership such as needing permanent residency to purchase property other than the existing timeshares or something to that effect.
Get rid of CIREBA for starters. Or impose a cap of 2% commission on real estate transactions. Those agent jokers are a huge part of the higher housing issue. Plus they actually do very little work and some do not know what they should do.
Top comment!
7% is absolute robbery.
1-2% is plenty, or even a fixed fee model.
When agents can earn $1m+ a year, there is no incentive to control the market, and the industry has become full of sharks.
Agents making that kind of money are doing so off the multimillion dollar condos.
They are not making a living off the NAU housing recipients.
Agreed. There’s no earthly reason why a seller should need to use a real estate agent. It’s not rocket science and you can do your own research at Lands as to comps and recent sales. Lands Department staff are very helpful and knowledgeable. Take some time to work out your price and you and the purchaser profit.
Just bought a block of land. We did the entire process ourselves including due diligence on a search of the registry and submitted to L.S.U for the applicable stamp duty & submission fee’s. No reason any capable person cannot transact a property between themselves & a buyer/seller. We only had an attorney to witness signatures. No agent fees /commission.
Planning needs to reassess its requirements. They need to enforce safe building practices but allow people to build affordably. They rule out alternative buildings because they are narrow-minded and can’t think out to the box. You can still build economically and maintain safety.
Not less than 10 feet above sea level, you can’t.
In other places there are incentives for first time home buyers with lower interest rates, restrictions on resale and a lower down payment (among other incentives).
The only incentive that I am aware of here is a discount on the stamp duty but the cost of the property has to be under a certain amount so that was no good for all first time home buyers…
Back when I qualified, it was $150K. I had busted my butt to get a down payment to afford something ‘nice’ so I was ‘punished’ for spending $189
Pathetic waste of time. Why should I be punished for driving a 15+ year old car in order to save for a down payment for a more expensive property?
Totally stupid idea yet again. Why doesnt someone value property correctly ensuring a cap is put on homes for sale instead of people asking crazy prices. You may say well if they ask crazy prices it wont sell? Problem is absolutely everyone is asking crazy prices for even a one bed apt with no governance at all from anyone.
Doesn’t work, that’s why.
How very Cuban. Cap prices and watch supply disappear completely.
the add ons to real estate transactions don’t help: CIREBA’s price fixing on sales commissions (surely an anti competitive behavior?) and CIG stamp duty – both on the transfer and the mortgage.
As long as the houses are ready just before the next elections!!
Yes 2.17, they will be mighty vote buying instruments.
The easiest solution to this is the following:
IMMEDIATELY stop the SEZC and Global Conciege programs.
IMMEDIATELY freeze development of million dollar condos.
IMMEDIATELY freeze land prices and consider regulating them.
IMMEDIATELY put a moraturium on who can buy land in Cayman and how. ie. the 10 year waiting period as a PR as in some other islands.
IMMEDIATELY force developers to pass on the millions in duty free concessions to new buyers.
IMMEDIATELY make Government reclaim the foriegn purchased and unused houses on the islands and have them resold to locals at discount.
so you want to build less properties, to reduce supply of homes, which somehow you think will decrease home prices?
So immediately tear up the rule of law and smash a wrecking ball through your constitution. Brilliant! LOL. Congrats now you own a condo in an economic wasteland.
I am sure the sight of government forcibly acquiring foreign owned property to be resold to locals at a discount won’t have any impact on the financial services sector either. I mean, as a foreign investor I would be absolutely positive that CIG would one day decide to do the same to my shares in a Cayman entity, particularly if it was very profitable. But I think your simple solution is a little too modest. Let’s just adopt the Cuban model where there is no private property and the state just allocated everyone somewhere to live – no problems with Cubans having access to residential property. Of course it may not quite be to the standard we are used to in Cayman, or even have running water or electricity, but what the hey.
International business people aren’t coming here to buy your housing in west bay and east end.
Don’t worry, we get the message. I’ll spend my $70,000 a month elsewhere
@2:06 and IMMEDIATELY reck the economy! Clueless.
wreck
This is segregated plots of land away from the extremely wealthy. Yes keep the poor locals away from the rich. It’s a bandaid to a problem the government allowed. See where short term greed got us? Stuck in traffic, far away from the beaches, and teaching us to accept handouts. Not sure what the generations to come are going to do. I guess move to the brac and little cayman to afford to own something of their own.
Generations are going overseas for education, on scholarships and their father and mother working all hours so their child/ren move on, and not coming back bcos nothing here for them. Just as generations have done since beginning of time.
Gentrification is definitely in play here, and it will only get worse.
Oh my word. This is a serious problem and my faith in this government to solve it based on reading this article is approximately zero percent, possibly even less than that.
There is a saying that “the fastest way to kill a horse is to assign two people to feed it”, but I’ll bet the person who came up with it never tried assigning four people.
I’m glad everyone is so eager to take responsibility for the project. It will be interesting to see who is left around the table when it’s time to take the blame for the lack of results, the waste, the fraud and the abuse.
Ah, the waste, the fraud, the abuse. All near certain. All exempt from investigation from our #worlclass law enforcers and anti corruption agencies.
Hey RCIP, how is the investigation into some of the most egregious status grants coming? You do understand that those grants and this problem are substantially related, right?
Time for CPA to realise that developed first world countries have embraced the potential benefits of homes built from shipping containers. Some designs actually are indistinguishable from homes built from concrete. This would also save on ship them back to the continents empty.
I can’t fathom why it takes over 4 ministries to plan and implement a solution. Then again if there’s money to be made I guess more than a few might want a cut. I doubt anything good for the people who need affordable housing will be born out of this.
Too many hands in the pot!
‘Among the proposals set out in the budget, government plans to sell sub-divisions on crown land at cost, use the Cayman Islands Development Bank for home loans and create transitional accommodation for the homeless.’
So what do you do after the first wave and then the wave after that. You’re not fixing anything PACT, you’re just compounding the problem by not taking care of it directly. The previous Govt and now PACT continues the trend by ignoring people like Dart buying tracts of land and just sitting on it causing a shrinkage in the market and over inflated prices with the homes being built targeted to high net worth which developers are getting concessions on. No matter how you look at, the mid to low income families are being priced and bought out of their own country. Just grow some PACT and stop waltzing around the pond thinking you’re appeasing those whom the system is hamstringing when all you’re really doing is conforming to what you’re levered to and a bigger dollar; the PACT theater is nauseating. 🎭
perfect storm of booming property bubble market …ready to burst.
lucky we have brainiacs like no-plan-pact in charge……zzzzzzzzzzzz
this crisis will explode and will include expats when tourism comes back 100%….you will then see a huge amount of rental properties switch to air-bnb’s.
no magic bullet to this problem. this is market economics and you can’t control it, without destroying the property market.
my advice…don’t have kids if you can’t afford them.
living simple and within your means.
build high rise apartment complexes located in suitable locations.
maybe the market needs to be intentionally destroyed.
The unintended consequences of doing so would hurt the people you imagine that would help far worse than the people you’re trying to hurt.
Tigger laugh..woooowooowoowoo
So apparently you already forgot what happened in 2008 in the US and who suffered and who made out like bandits. I’ll give you a clue, because clearly you have none. The rich took a paper loss on their assets but used their liquid wealth to buy more and are now a lot richer. The middle classes took a paper loss on their assets but the cost of servicing their debt dropped, they’ve paid for it since through inflation and wage stagnation. Then there’s the poor who lost their jobs and their homes or, if they were waiting to buy one, lost access to credit so couldn’t anyway.
Imagine what two 10 story residential towers at the Glass House site could do? Small, good quality – where government workers, office workers, retail workers and even healthcare workers could live. All within a walk of their workplace. An incredible location, and also efficient and effective in reducing urban sprawl and traffic.
Government should do a JV with an established developer. Sell some and rent some, and have a sustainable product in the process.
What are you babbling on about but excellent humour!
Yep…perfect for people without kids.
Don’t have kids if you can’t afford them.
It might pay to engage in a bot of critical thinking before writing a comment. If every Caymanian took your advice in the context of home ownership: …”don’t have kids if you can’t afford them”, and waited until they could afford owning a home before having children, the Caymanian population would fall like a rock. Many would never have children. Others would opt for having fewer children than needed to sustain a healthy population growth. Then what?
How many minimum wage foreign nationals do we have to import to build these homes? Where are they going to live?
Then, when the thousands of minimum wage foreign workers leave at the end of the present building boom, how many hundreds of unoccupied low income homes are there going to be? How will the Caymanian landlords pay their mortgages then?
Aye. There’s the rub!
The NAU can’t rent anywhere because they don’t pay their damn bills. End of story.
This won’t end well.
Wasn’t this done before and nobody ived in them..
The NAU cannot find homes to rent partly because of years of them not paying rent on time. They are in fact partly responsible for this mess. Any accountability? No!
And while I am at it, how many millions are they spending supporting foreign nationals while Caymanian children sleep in cars?
This isn’t going to solve anything. Those ‘lucky’ ones chosen to get these homes at a discount from their true market value (because of who they know) will only sell them to realise an immediate gain. Then those homes form part of the general housing stock at market value and are no longer available to buy at a discount.
What idiot thought of this scheme?
If they want affordable homes, they need to deal with the price gouging and inflation here to make the actual building and owning of homes affordable.
Or create a large government rental stock so that qualified Caymanians can rent a starter home at an affordable rate to allow them to save a deposit to buy their own home.
But building homes for a chosen few to purchase at a discounted rate is just another opportunity for corruption, who you know favoritism, and then those homes are now sold for profit in someones pocket.
Maybe with a kickback or three…
This might be the best comment I’ve read all year.
The property sector needs a complete overhaul from surveyors, to contractors, to real estate agents and yes the banks which is leading to this absurd property inflation. Their all in line with one another to line their own pockets and I’ve seen it first hand through the process from start to finish. If OfReg was ever created to do something worthy in this country this is their golden opportunity. Bring some form of regulation to the sector. Every Caymanian in this country should have the right to build or purchase their dream home at a realistic price if they’ve contributed to the country through multiple years of hardwork and not have to sell their souls for a 30+ year mortgage to the bank just to purchase a 4×4 “affordable home”.
If we think it’s hard for us right now what will be the outlook for the next generation of Caymanians. This is the time to make real change for the future
They can’t resell them before a long period of time, so what you are saying does not make sense
The national housing trust fixed the price at which they can sell. This isn’t a free market at all
Similar to the stamp duty waiver for first time Caymanian homeowners. The Government can say that the owner is not allowed to sell the property for at least 5 years or they have to pay a hefty penalty. Maybe even say 10 years. The only thing owners will be able to do is borrow against the equity for home repairs or upgrades in that time period.