The Central Housing and Planning Authority (CH&PA) is examining ways to reduce the cost of its housing units, whilst maintaining quality.
GINA said that this follows concerns raised by members of the public about the prices of the units that were on display at the recent Housing Solutions 2017 and Beyond Exposition.
Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of CH&PA, Lelon Saul told GINA that these prices were reasonable given the level of investment that was pumped into the construction of the units.
“Because we would have used the best of the local woods, it influenced the actual cost for the buildings, so what we intend to do in the future, maybe the internal works in the building in the floor perhaps, we might use some other form of hardwood instead of greenheart and for the external work, the cladding, we would use greenheart and perhaps we could reduce some of the size of the members to bring down the cost a little without compromising the integrity of the buildings,” the CEO said.
He said that the actual cost of the units is twice the cost for what they are being sold.
“Even the unit that was priced, we spent a total of $16.M to construct that duplex, but yet we are selling it for $6.5M because we do take the citizens into consideration, and I would want to believe that as we move forward, when we look at the subsidies that would be given in terms of a proportion, I think that the same would be done for the other buildings, but I want to caution, that this may not be sustainable, and therefore, we would have to find some means of bringing down the cost,” Saul said.
