SHAR­LENE RAM­PER­SAD

Over the next ten years, the Gov­ern­ment will con­struct 25,000 homes for ap­pli­cants of the Hous­ing De­vel­op­ment Cor­po­ra­tion (HDC).

Con­fir­ma­tion from Fi­nance Min­is­ter Colm Im­bert in the Par­lia­ment to­day, dur­ing the 2020/2021 Bud­get State­ment, which is themed, “Re­set­ting the Econ­o­my for Growth and In­no­va­tion”.

Im­bert said the HDC has pro­vid­ed 50,000 hous­es for cit­i­zens, but there are still 175,000 ap­pli­cants wait­ing on homes.

He said with its cur­rent struc­ture and fund­ing, the HDC on­ly con­structs 3,000 hous­es per year.

“We will be ex­pand­ing this out­put through the pri­vate sec­tor, es­pe­cial­ly through small and medi­um con­trac­tors. Over the next ten years we will de­liv­er 25,000 new homes on state lands,” he said.

Im­bert said these 25,000 hous­es will be built to ac­com­mo­date cit­i­zens on dif­fer­ent lev­els of so­cioe­co­nom­ic stand­ing.

There will be:

● 10,000 starter homes, val­ued at $250,000 each, with month­ly pay­ments of $925 and no down pay­ment;

● 5,000 af­ford­able homes at 350,000 to $500,000 with month­ly pay­ment up to $1,750 with five per cent down pay­ment;

● 5,000 mid­dle-in­come homes be­tween $650,000 and $900,000 with a month­ly pay­ment of up to $3,100 with five per­cent down pay­ment; and

● 5,000 homes for young pro­fes­sion­als with units val­ued be­tween $1 Mil­lion and $1.5 Mil­lion and month­ly pay­ment up to $5,265 and a five per cent down pay­ment.