Real estate company LBS Affordable Housing Ltd (LAH) is promising to provide lower-priced housing for Tobago.
The company is in talks to collaborate with the Tobago House of Assembly (THA) to build homes for people in need.
During the company’s launch of a Tobago branch office in Dutch Fort, Scarborough, yesterday, THA Assemblyman Ian Pollard said they have been communicating with the company on the issue since January.
“We are now getting the intricacies of the product they are offering and we think that now it’s needed. As the executive, we have decided to construct 30 homes throughout the 15 constituencies for persons who are really in need and coming in at around 400,000... we already had designs, but they are coming with a better offer to me, where they are gonna do the homes and we have 15 per cent down payment, then we have 8 or 12 years payoff rate. So, that will work in sync with our plans in this dispensation of the THA,” Pollard said.
He added: “We think that will catch on because we see it every day, you have houses out there that really need assistance, some owners need assistance in reconstructing their homes you know, over the rainy season, you had houses that fell off their pillars and stuff like that. We are really looking forward to going out and bringing the needed assistance to Tobagonians.”
LAH project manager Sunil Jawahir said their goal was to provide reasonably priced homes.
“After listening to yesterday’s Budget, we’re looking to see wherever we can save. And we’re providing a house that gives you all the comfort of having all the amenities of a high-end structure and a high-end house at an affordable rate,” he said.
Jawahir said a new concrete panelling that can withstand a category seven hurricane and 8.5 magnitude earthquake is being used on their new houses.
“We’re trying an innovative system now where we’re moving away from the conventional block and mortar and we’re bringing in a new system. This method is now being introduced to us, it has been used in first-world countries ... They’re using this system, and now we have an opportunity to bring it to the market here and pass it on to the people in need of housing,” Jawahir said.
Although some people on social media questioned whether the company could deliver low-cost housing, the LAH managing director, who asked to remain anonymous for security reasons, said, “If it was a scam, the THA would have never looked to come on board with us. We met with them 5 months and they did all the investigation ... we are too established to scam anyone. We are under FIU and all of that, so we can’t scam people.”