PM Mottley announces 10,000 homes in 5 years under HOPE project

Bridgetown, Barbados: Prime Minister Mia Mottley announced a target of building 10,000 homes over five years under the Home Ownership Providing Energy (HOPE) project. The announcement was made on Monday at her 2024/2025 Budget address. 

The Barbadian Prime Minister said that the government is making several efforts to address issues obstructing the construction process and import of materials and barriers to executing mortgage transactions. 

“We have had some problems with HOPE, and the structure and systems were not adequate, and now we are in the process of completing those systems and employing the necessary individuals so that we can operate on an industrial scale in terms of procurement. In terms of surveying, in terms of construction, in terms of every aspect of building and running a home, because it’s not as easy as building five or ten homes when you want to build the kind of number that we want to build”, added PM Mottley. 

In addition to the HOPE project, Barbados is seeking an additional 2,561 housing solutions, which will be built in St Philip and St Lucy through the National Housing Corporation-private sector. 

PM Mottley revealed that the government has handed over the keys of about 1,119 homes to the homeowners through the HOPE project and stressed that with their efforts and dedication, two years’ work was completed in just one year.  

For this project, the Ministry of Housing, the National Housing Corporation and private sector collaborating to execute the idea of 2,561 housing solutions. 

Responding to the government’s decision to tie up with a Chinese company for the reconstruction process after Hurricane Elsa, she said the government was initially thinking of hiring Chinese workers for the reconstruction work.

However, the idea did not work as they were unable to get transit visas for Barbados, due to which the government was forced to employ their local workers which costed them expensive. 

PM Mottley further said an assessment by BCQS, an independent quantitative survey team, showed that costs exceeded the original budget, but they were in line with market expectations compared with resources outside China.

Additionally, during the 2024/2025 Budget address, no new taxes were announced. Some of the highlighted points of the address are as follows, 

– Unlocking the mortgage market

– Creating a new body called Business Barbados 

– Reviewing tax structures and creating new investment funds

– Digitalisation and re-engineering of business processes

– Increasing access to financing for the private and public sectors

– Monetising illiquid and derelict assets in the public and private sectors

– Increasing public and private sector partnerships

– Addressing the country’s demographic challenges by population and skills management

– Establishing the pharmaceutical industry to aid in the protection of Barbadian’s health and for export and foreign exchange earnings

– Emphasis on capital projects

– Incentivising a vibrant creative industry and film industry

– Developing Barbados as an Agri-processing hub

– Exporting capital to diversify investments given Barbados‘ limited size and vulnerability, starting with the Caribbean Single Market and Economy (CSME) and the wider Caribbean, Central and Latin America.