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Housing set to meet demands
Nov 17
|17:40 pm
Fiji’s Housing Authority has set a 5 year land development plan that focuses on new housing schemes for the central, western and eastern divisions.
In marking its 50th anniversary, the Chief Executive Officer for Housing Authority, Mr Alipate Naiorosui said the demand for housing has increased substantially along the Suva-Nausori corridor and also in the jet set town of Nadi.
With the noticeable rise in rural-urban drift, the mushrooming of squatter settlements and the high expenses associated to buying a home, calls for proper living standards has prompted the Housing Authority to re-look and find ways to provide affordable homes for Fiji’s citizens.
Mr Naiorosui highlighted that Land development projects for 2010 –2012 are Waqadra – Nadi with 600 allocated lots, for Suva area - Nepani has 200 lots, Waila has 5000 lots, Wainibuku has 320 lots and one of the biggest developments is for Tacirua East with 1052 lots.
With a soft loan of $70 million and an interest rate of 2 per cent approved by the Chinese Exim Bank for the Tacirua East development, Mr Naiorosui said the Ministry of Commerce in China is processing the funds and Housing Authority hopes the funds would be made available for the commencement of the project.
“This Chinese soft loan would be used for the land development at Tacirua Heights – a mixed development of low, middle and high end lots, a commercial centre with supermarkets, service stations, retails outlets and 10 to 12 industrial lots.”
Last year the Government gave a guarantee of $150 million and the balance currently is $139 million which would be used over the next five years. HA says in terms of new development, models any new housing development will have all basic amenities parks, good roads, playground, enough civic lots for community or religious activities.
“If you look at past developments a lot of our children are playing on roads – don’t have parks – our new vision is looking at communities that want good quality life .
“Under the HA mandate we assist the middle and low-income earners and we get the income figures from Bureau of Statistics based on their household income surveys. If you are a regular income earner for e.g. a security guard, government worker, supermarket worker and your FNPF is deducted you can apply for a piece of land – what you will get would depend on the income that you have. The higher the income the higher the loan we can give you”.
Mr Naiorosui says the minimum deposit would be 10 per cent of the cost of land. The financial assistance loan is based up to the age of retirement and it has revealed that a lot of young people are requesting for housing loans.
The interest for HA at the moment is 7.99 per cent which has not changed for 5 years. HA says that the demand for housing is increasing and to start from acquisition and complete from land development alone takes minimum of 3 years.
“One of the acquisitions is a piece of land in Savusavu – where it would be developed to support the workers of Savusavu town. It’s a small development, we are not carrying out any market study and the designs have already been completed”.
Mr Naiorosui said market studies have been carried out in the past and would be done again with the new housing development. At the moment the demand is more than the supply and HA is giving preferences to those who seek HA’s assistance first and do not have houses or lots of their own.
With its total assets up to $200 million, HA recently opened its new office space in Suva at the Sukuna House to cater for the rising customer needs. The new office has two loan and sales enquiry service, with its product general enquiry and processing services under one roof.
The new chairman for HA, Mr Pio Tukduadua said development at Wainibuku has already begun with 270 lots costing around $6.7 million to be completed in May 2010.
HA has also launched its new Customer Service Excellence Policy Framework whereby customer complaints would be handled and the revamping of HA’s website.
The Attorney-General and Minister for Justice and Public Enterprise, Mr Aiyaz-Sayed Khaiyum while opening the new office and launching HA’s products said there are plans to merge the Public Rentals Board and HA into one institution.
“We have recognised that there needs to be synergy between PRB and HA therefore a study is currently being conducted to see the viability of having a merger between these two institutions because after all the key objective is to provide service – a 1 stop shop to the citizens of our country. It makes a lot of sense to have 1 institution with which they can deal with,” Mr Aiyaz Sayed –Khaiyum said.
In terms of squatter resettlements, HA is closely working with Father Kevin Barr of ECREA –HA has provided lots and financed homes to 12 squatter settlements around Fiji such as Waila a 460 development lot where 30 out of the 40 families that used to live at the Pony Club are now residing at Waila.
Mr Naiorosui said though housing is expensive, Housing Authorities vision to provide affordable homes is in line with their strategic plan for this year with a target to provide housing for almost 10,000 families in the coming years.
In marking its 50th anniversary, the Chief Executive Officer for Housing Authority, Mr Alipate Naiorosui said the demand for housing has increased substantially along the Suva-Nausori corridor and also in the jet set town of Nadi.
With the noticeable rise in rural-urban drift, the mushrooming of squatter settlements and the high expenses associated to buying a home, calls for proper living standards has prompted the Housing Authority to re-look and find ways to provide affordable homes for Fiji’s citizens.
Mr Naiorosui highlighted that Land development projects for 2010 –2012 are Waqadra – Nadi with 600 allocated lots, for Suva area - Nepani has 200 lots, Waila has 5000 lots, Wainibuku has 320 lots and one of the biggest developments is for Tacirua East with 1052 lots.
With a soft loan of $70 million and an interest rate of 2 per cent approved by the Chinese Exim Bank for the Tacirua East development, Mr Naiorosui said the Ministry of Commerce in China is processing the funds and Housing Authority hopes the funds would be made available for the commencement of the project.
“This Chinese soft loan would be used for the land development at Tacirua Heights – a mixed development of low, middle and high end lots, a commercial centre with supermarkets, service stations, retails outlets and 10 to 12 industrial lots.”
Last year the Government gave a guarantee of $150 million and the balance currently is $139 million which would be used over the next five years. HA says in terms of new development, models any new housing development will have all basic amenities parks, good roads, playground, enough civic lots for community or religious activities.
“If you look at past developments a lot of our children are playing on roads – don’t have parks – our new vision is looking at communities that want good quality life .
“Under the HA mandate we assist the middle and low-income earners and we get the income figures from Bureau of Statistics based on their household income surveys. If you are a regular income earner for e.g. a security guard, government worker, supermarket worker and your FNPF is deducted you can apply for a piece of land – what you will get would depend on the income that you have. The higher the income the higher the loan we can give you”.
Mr Naiorosui says the minimum deposit would be 10 per cent of the cost of land. The financial assistance loan is based up to the age of retirement and it has revealed that a lot of young people are requesting for housing loans.
The interest for HA at the moment is 7.99 per cent which has not changed for 5 years. HA says that the demand for housing is increasing and to start from acquisition and complete from land development alone takes minimum of 3 years.
“One of the acquisitions is a piece of land in Savusavu – where it would be developed to support the workers of Savusavu town. It’s a small development, we are not carrying out any market study and the designs have already been completed”.
Mr Naiorosui said market studies have been carried out in the past and would be done again with the new housing development. At the moment the demand is more than the supply and HA is giving preferences to those who seek HA’s assistance first and do not have houses or lots of their own.
With its total assets up to $200 million, HA recently opened its new office space in Suva at the Sukuna House to cater for the rising customer needs. The new office has two loan and sales enquiry service, with its product general enquiry and processing services under one roof.
The new chairman for HA, Mr Pio Tukduadua said development at Wainibuku has already begun with 270 lots costing around $6.7 million to be completed in May 2010.
HA has also launched its new Customer Service Excellence Policy Framework whereby customer complaints would be handled and the revamping of HA’s website.
The Attorney-General and Minister for Justice and Public Enterprise, Mr Aiyaz-Sayed Khaiyum while opening the new office and launching HA’s products said there are plans to merge the Public Rentals Board and HA into one institution.
“We have recognised that there needs to be synergy between PRB and HA therefore a study is currently being conducted to see the viability of having a merger between these two institutions because after all the key objective is to provide service – a 1 stop shop to the citizens of our country. It makes a lot of sense to have 1 institution with which they can deal with,” Mr Aiyaz Sayed –Khaiyum said.
In terms of squatter resettlements, HA is closely working with Father Kevin Barr of ECREA –HA has provided lots and financed homes to 12 squatter settlements around Fiji such as Waila a 460 development lot where 30 out of the 40 families that used to live at the Pony Club are now residing at Waila.
Mr Naiorosui said though housing is expensive, Housing Authorities vision to provide affordable homes is in line with their strategic plan for this year with a target to provide housing for almost 10,000 families in the coming years.
