Sean Nero

Min­is­ter in the Of­fice of the Prime Min­is­ter Stu­art Young is urg­ing de­vel­op­ers and fi­nanciers of projects to join with Gov­ern­ment in pub­lic-pri­vate part­ner­ships (PPP) to keep the lo­cal econ­o­my buoy­ant. He said there should be more fo­cus on re­al es­tate and the time is right to reignite the ex­cite­ment in the hous­ing and the of­fice space mar­kets.

In re­marks at Thurs­day's An­nu­al Trinidad Re­al­tors Awards at Queen's Hall in St Ann's, Young said pri­vate sec­tor in­vest­ments are cru­cial to stim­u­late the mar­ket, while gen­er­at­ing rev­enues.

"As a gov­ern­ment we have com­ing on stream in the next few months the sale of the apart­ments at Vic­to­ria Keys and as a Cab­i­net we took a de­ci­sion, due to the mas­sive ex­tra amounts of mon­ey spent on it, to put it out on the open mar­ket.

"It's not go­ing to be low in­come hous­ing and when that hits the mar­ket you all will have the op­por­tu­ni­ty to be sell­ing these apart­ments, pent­hous­es," he said.

"From what I have seen they are re­al­ly of a top class lev­el. What we are in­tro­duc­ing over the next year, as was men­tioned in the bud­get and the Min­is­ter of Hous­ing will an­nounce it in the com­ing months, are PPP projects. How can you part­ner with the Gov­ern­ment? What is it that we have that in ad­di­tion to the land bank?"he asked.

Young said he was aware that in re­cent months there had been dif­fi­cul­ties get­ting per­mis­sion from Town and Coun­try Plan­ning and oth­er au­thor­i­ties to get projects off the ground.

"As a gov­ern­ment we give a com­mit­ment to work along with you, to try and short­en and con­tract those time frames. But re­al­ly the plea is let's be cre­ative now.

"Let's do what we can to start back that hous­ing econ­o­my. This no longer will be dri­ven by the hun­dreds of mil­lions, if not bil­lions of dol­lars by the gov­ern­ment. We need to take the lim­it­ed funds that are avail­able now to key oth­er ar­eas afloat," he said.

The min­is­ter said Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley and his ad­min­is­tra­tion have con­cep­tu­alised sev­er­al ini­tia­tives in oil and gas and tourism to spur eco­nom­ic re­lief.

Point­ing to the San­dals Re­sort De­vel­op­ment in To­ba­go, Young said al­though there are nay-say­ers, the project is "a great ven­ture, which should lift the To­ba­go mar­ket."

Among the big win­ners at the awards func­tion was Tuck­er Re­al Es­tate, the Agency of the Year Large, while vet­er­an re­al­tor Sharon In­gle­field was pre­sent­ed with the Life­time Achieve­ment Award.

The T&T Guardian was named Best Print Com­pa­ny for re­al es­tate in­for­ma­tion, while JD Sel­l­i­er was Law Firm of the Year and Sagi­cor In­sur­er of the Year.

TRINIDAD RE­AL­TOR AWARDS

Most Res­i­den­tial Sale Prop­er­ties

Massy Re­al­ty

Most Res­i­den­tial Rental Prop­er­ties

Ter­ra Caribbean

Most Com­mer­cial Sale Prop­er­ties

Ter­ra Caribbean

Most Com­mer­cial Rental Prop­er­ties

Ter­ra Caribbean

Most Prop­er­ties on Map­ping Guide

Ter­ra Caribbean

Most Views on Trinidad

Re­al­tor.com

Tuck­er Re­al Es­tate

Most Pho­tos on Trinidad

Re­al­tor.com

Tuck­er Re­al Es­tate

Most Land for Sale Prop­er­ties

TT Prop­er­ty Search

Most Videos viewed Trinidad

Re­al­tor.com

Stu­art Spiers Re­al Es­tate Ser­vices

Best Print Me­dia Com­pa­ny

Trinidad Guardian News­pa­pers

Val­uer of the Year

GA Far­rell & As­so­ciates

Law Firm of the Year

JD Sel­l­i­er & Co

Ar­chi­tect of the Year

Fuller­ton Di­az Ar­chi­tects

In­te­ri­or De­sign­er of the Year

Bri­an Mac Far­lane: Mac­Far­lane's De­sign Stu­dios

Up & Com­ing Con­trac­tor of the Year

Build­ing Beau­ty Con­struc­tion

Bank Branch of the Year

Re­pub­lic Bank Port-of-Spain

Mort­gage Agent of the Year

Car­lene Joseph-Seer­at­tan: RBC Roy­al Bank

In­sur­ance Firm of the Year

Sagi­cor

Most Pro­fes­sion­al­ly At­tired Male Agent

Col­in Sker­ritt: Ck Sker­ritt Re­al Es­tate Svs Ltd.

Most Pro­fes­sion­al­ly At­tired Fe­male Agent

Mar­jorie Lou­saing: Trinidad Prop­er­ties Man­age­ment Com­pa­ny

Most Pro­fes­sion­al and Punc­tu­al Agent

Steve Plim­mer: Plim­mer Re­al Es­tate

Male Agent of the Year Small Com­pa­ny

Ed­ward Gool­sair: Sair Re­al Es­tate

Male Agent of the Year Large Com­pa­ny

Ian Parkin­son: Massy Re­al­ty

Fe­male Agent of the Year Small Com­pa­ny

De­bra Teelucks­ingh: DT Re­al Es­tate Ser­vices

Fe­male Agent of the Year Medi­um Com­pa­ny

Alex Boon: Guillen Re­al­ty

Fe­male Agent of the Year Large Com­pa­ny

Tra­cy Shep­pard: Stu­art Spiers Re­al Es­tate Ser­vices