Former Chairman of The Bahamas Mortgage Corporation (BMC) Alex Storr yesterday labelled Housing Minister Romauld Ferriera’s comments on housing prices under the previous administration as nonsensical, erroneous, and baseless.
According to Minister Ferreira, homes constructed under the former administration were overpriced by tens of thousands of dollars.
The Minister’s comment was in response to the argument that the government should have remained in the business of building affordable homes as opposed to simply selling affordable lots.
This followed the government’s decision a few months back to provide service lots in pockets throughout New Providence.
Mr. Storr said, “I have every confidence in the professionals at the Ministry of Housing who were responsible for the pricing.
“As everyone knows, lending institutions will not lend you a dime more than a house is worth, and this was never an issue with any of the commercial banks. Their survival depends on this,” he added.
He also said, “as a matter of fact, many of these houses were actually undervalued as many times infrastructure cost, actual land value, and other incidentals were not considered in the final price.”
Mr. Storr suggested the “awol” minister “get a handle on his ministry and tackle pertinent issues”.
These, he said, includes the homes in Queen’s Park Subdivision “that lay vacant after being complete for over a year”; the minister’s failure to comment publically on the firing of several experienced executives at BMC, or the millions of dollars in revenue shortfall the corporation will be facing because of the shift in the government’s housing policy.
He said, “in my opinion, the last issue will severely hamper their ability to service their upcoming due bonds without help from an already overburdened treasury and will most likely mean more government borrowing to add to the billions we already owe.”
Mr. Storr also suggested that the Minnis- Administration “correct the abysmal course they are on by shifting from a policy that includes making untrue, negative allegations about the last administration and blaming the PLP for their very own failures…”
He further suggested to shift to a course “that delivers real relief to the Bahamian people as their policies thus far have only created grief and hardship.”
