Land and Housing |28 March 2022

Minister Rangasamy flanked by PS Barbe and PS Morgan during the live press conference on Friday (Photo: Thomas Meriton)

Individuals urged to ‘work harder’ to achieve ‘dream home’

Home seekers will have to work harder so that they can earn a better salary and eventually be able to afford their ‘dream home’.

This came out in a live press conference on Friday where the minister and top officials from the Ministry of Land and Housing gave details of its new land and housing policy.

The press conference, led by Minister Billy Rangasamy and his two principal secretaries – Denis Barbe for Housing and Muriel Morgan for Land – took place at the International Conference Centre Seychelles (ICCS).

PS Morgan said that the principal changes in the policy are focused more towards land bank and social housing.

She said there will be changes that will develop during the year, for instance the home saving scheme, exchange policy, vulnerable repair scheme and special housing.

The PS said that the aim behind the new policy is to bring a more realistic approach towards the country’s economy and an individual’s economy.

The second biggest focus in the policy is to re-calibrate the public’s expectation towards attaining their own house, PS Morgan stated.

She said the ministry wishes to bring a culture of responsibility and that its clients become more engaged with the products the ministry has.

She added that the ministry is taking a more business approach so that it does not oversubsidise to guarantee that its land and housing programme remains sustainable without becoming a burden on the national budget.

The PS for Land said the more important part is to encourage individuals to push harder and achieve more in their lives and that what they put in will reflect the energy and dedication they have expended.

“Therefore individuals will have to ‘work harder’ to attain better paying salaries to be able to achieve their dream home,” said PS Morgan.

The criteria to qualify remain the same; a person has to be a Seychellois, 18 years and above, must be resident in Seychelles for a continuous period of three years minimum at the time of making the application, applicant or spouse or partner has not been and is not in ownership of any property private or from the government (been assisted by the government), be in stable employment and if self-employed provide proof of the last six months a reliable source of income. Applicants must declare their partner that they live with regardless of whether they are married or not. This, PS Morgan, said is considered as one application and she did not clarify on the amount of time the couple have been together to be considered as one application.

She said that currently the policies are unrealistic and restrictive with too many social implications and do not reflect the current situation.

She said there are a lot of people that qualified for land however they do not have the capacity to develop the land immediately.

She noted that the individuals with land that cannot be developed then sell the land at an exorbitant price and this leaves other applicants lower on the waiting list without much chance of ever acquiring a piece of land.

Policy review for land bank

The PS said that the land resource in Seychelles is very limited and their inventory will later confirm how much limitations the ministry has in terms of land resource.

An analysis by the ministry of how much it will cost to build a house currently comes to about R1.2 million.

She emphasised that there is a lot of preparations before a house is built that is not inclusive of the R1.2 million.

She stated that the government loses about R250,000 to R350,000 to put up infrastructure.

In the policy, once an applicant has met the criteria they will need to demonstrate their financial ability as the minimum threshold is at R1.2 million.

Financial ability according to the policy is savings and help from parents.

Applicants will then have five years to develop the land and will be restricted for any sales for 15 years.

Policy review for housing

For the 80% of land applicants that are not capable of developing a land, they will have to switch to housing application.

The principal secretary for Housing, Denis Barbe, said that they have remunerated the products that they offer the applicants and feel that this approach will be more sustainable for housing programmes as well as encourage the private sector to participate in the housing sector.

He stated that the GICC condominium will continue, self-finance will be replaced by mid-range condo and is targeting people with the financial ability of between R800,000 and R1 million.

For affordable housing the mean cost is R650,000 and the application criteria is that a person has to be a Seychellois, 18 years and above, must be resident in Seychelles for a continuous period of three years minimum at the time of making the application, applicant or spouse or partner has not been and is not in ownership of any property – private or from the government (been assisted by the government), be in stable employment and if self-employed provide proof of the last six months a reliable source of income.

Applicants must declare their partner that they live with regardless of whether they are married or not. The applicant/s must have a single or combined income of not more than R15,000 per month.

Minister Rangasamy said that it is going to be a difficult journey and that he hopes that after analysing the S.W.O.T (Strength, Weakness, Opportunity and Threat) planning and management technique they will be able to see how many people have been removed from the list.

For those who have been on the list for many years and have not met some of the criteria in the new policy it is not clear where exactly they will fall but Minister Rangasamy said they will need to adjust their design, construct more affordable housing and that with more communication towards these people the ministry will guide and counsel them and take into consideration their concerns.

PS Barbe said that in the policy there is no mention exactly for graduate housing so it will depend on affordability and that the potential is there for graduates to acquire a condominium if they can afford it and parents can contribute up to 40% of the unit cost for the graduate to get access to a house.

He added that this is not just for R1.3 million condos but also products that are under a million the mid range condos that is in the range of graduates based on their income.

The PS for Housing said that they are in communication with the private sector and the banks to facilitate the loans process.

For the people that have not developed their allocated lands in the set time for development, the ministry is investigating these issues and where possible the resource will be returned to government and be redistributed.

Minister Rangasamy stated that this does not tantamount to victimisation but rather for fairness and justice, which he said will be achieved with the new policy.

Minister Rangasamy and PS Barbe ascertained that through their digitisation process they are ensuring that people who have acquired land or house from the government in the past are not allocated new land or house in a bid to maintain fairness.

The minister and the two principal secretaries stressed on the responsibility of the public and their financial abilities to acquire the products.

Marla Simeon