Private lands for NHA?

With land prices going through the roof, the National Housing Authority (NHA) may have to enter the market to purchase private lands, Executive Director Noel Garcia said. As the government’s housing provider, the NHA recognises the high cost of land, he said. He said they were trying to rely on State lands but the reality was that the price of land determined the prices of houses. The NHA, he said, was trying its best to keep the prices down. Garcia said along the East West corridor from Sangre Grande to Carenage there are very little land left and in Central, most of the lands were owned by Caroni and are agricultural.

He too said hillside development was being choked out, because of environmental concerns and stringent measures by Town and Country department. Garcia admitted that building townhouse apartments was as a result of the “pressure for lands” and that people were viewing it as being more secure than the single units. Dr Rowley has admitted to the problem of land space. He said NHA will now work with architects to come up with designs to maximise land use and to keep the costs of housing units down.

He said this could mean more two, three and four storey buildings. Central Bank Governor Ewart Williams has said because of the low interest rate environment last year, there was a tendency for some savers to shift to higher risk assets like real estate. He said such a tendency may have led to rapid rise in real estate values. However he said the runaway rise in real estate values was confined to a small sector of the market.