Rent-to-own project ‘still going’ – nationnews.com

Government’s rent-to-own housing project is still operational, says Minister of Housing, Lands and Maintenance Dwight Sutherland.

He gave that response after queries from some people on social media who questioned whether the programme was still functioning.

“If there’s one thing that is live within our housing programme is the rent-to-own programme. You can begin renting houses and you start at 150 something dollars per month.

“You can put skin in the game. Say, for instance, you put in $500, the rent is $150. The additional $350 goes towards your equity in that home. So the programme is indeed working. So I am not sure who would want to say that the rent-to-own programme is not working,” Sutherland said

He made those comments to reporters recently following the official opening of Solaris Court, Whitepark Road, St Michael.

Sutherland said they championed affordable homeownership.

“We recognise persons from low-income brackets who are paying $1 400 rent in the City for a two-bedroom flat, but you are paying less in a rent-to-own programme.

“You’re not burning up $1 400 monthly for your rent. You are putting equity towards owning a home. So the rent-to-own policy is indeed live,” he said.

The minister said the National Housing Corporation (NHC) had been undergoing some shifts, but Barbadians would still benefit from the 20-year programme.

“[Home Ownership Providing Energy Inc. (HOPE)] is far more to focus on building. National Housing now will focus on asset management, planning, infrastructure development and customer service-driven organisation because we still have estates.

“We have 52 estates, including this one, and we are building estates as we divest because the 20-year transfer programme is real.

“We have at least 3 000 persons who we will divest these assets to own them under the 20-year programme. We have to begin rebuilding stock as we divest those 3 000 homeowners within the various estates,” he added. 

When asked how the NHC planned to address delays, Sutherland said they had adjusted its digital process and customer service.

“The delay is indeed real and one of the areas that we’re restructuring through the board is the customer services department. We want to be able for persons to go online and log their queries.

“We [have] set up a help desk where the only thing they do on a daily basis is review customer complaints. We are revamping the computerised system so we can have more of what I call real-time action in terms of responses,” he said.