I want to be an expat

So of course I am on the hunt for an apartment. I’ve told all my friends, sent out a Facebook message, scoured the papers and generally been on tenterhooks as I try to find somewhere suitably safe, affordable, attractive and liveable for a single working woman.

Since it has been seven years since I’ve had to search the rentals ads I admit there were moments of shock and genuine bewilderment at the prices being quoted in the newspapers.

When, really when, did it become okay to ask for US dollars in the Trinidad market? Homes for sale or rent are being quoted in US dollars more than they are in TT dollars, as if we have become some US mini-state or American enclave in the past few years. I am tempted to ask if this is legal but I am sure it would be seen as a silly, naive question. It must surely be legal if it has been done all these years. But really, is it right, is it ethical, is it fair to the mostly poor people of Trinidad and Tobago? Or even the middle class people of this country?

Born into a working class family, hard working parents and education have allowed me to “rise” to the middle class. But I find that my middle class status still does not allow me to pay bills, save for the future and at the same time afford an apartment in a decent neighbourhood in 21st century Trinidad and Tobago.

And I am not talking a decent neighbourhood like Blue Range or Valsayn. I am talking anything from St James to Freeport to Debe.

Let’s talk figures. The average rental price of an even more average townhouse or apartment is anywhere between US$1,200 to US$3,000. So we are looking at TT$8,000 to $20,000 for a two bedroom, often unfurnished, apartment in any part of Trinidad. A studio or a onebedroom can range from TT$2,500 to $6,000. If you’re buying, prices range from TT$1.5 million to US any million. There is very little to be found for under one million TT dollars.

What I find fascinating is that it is not just the well-to-do enclaves around the country that are asking these prices, it is every hole-in-the-wall, two by four shack in the boondocks who are bold enough to ask for more than a million dollars. What could be driving people to ask outrageous prices for their often physically challenged homes? Call it the expat effect. With the upsurge in foreigners coming to Trinidad to work for various oil and other companies and with the Prime Minister moving full speed ahead to become the financial capital of the Caribbean, housing is in higher demand than usual.

Expatriates come to Trinidad with their US dollars or their British pounds and they continue to earn in their native currency. If you are earning US$10,000 per month or more it’s nothing to pay one-tenth of your salary towards housing in Trinidad. But that one-tenth is the entire salary of a mid-level employee in this country. How can we compete?

And the spending power of the expatriate not only impacts on housing. Think about the high cost of dining out. One hundred dollars US for a meal is nothing to a foreigner but to a Trinbagonian it is the week’s groceries. Yet, driven by the expat culture, dining out is at an all-time high and more and more restaurants and nightspots are opening up to suit their appetite for entertainment.

With real estate agents and restaurateurs pricing their products in US dollars, can the rest be far behind. Will we soon be heading to Tunapuna or Chaguanas market to buy bodi for US$1 a bundle or tomatoes US$1.50 per pound? It may sound ridiculous but is it any less ridiculous to sell our land, our homes, for a few US dollars? How about our future, our heritage, our very souls...

In an ideal, perhaps socialist, world someone might decide on a two-tiered approach to payment for housing – one price for locals and another for expats, with locals always having first preference. But that might seem too draconian for most to deal with and perhaps I am simply speaking out of a bottomless depth of frustration. But given the way the country is heading, I shouldn’t wonder if one day soon Trinidad might be too expensive to live in for Trinidadians.

Vashty Maharaj is the Editor

of the Sunday Newsday.

E-mail: vmaharaj@newsday.co.tt