Housing minister explains delay in Green Hill houses

The delay in the Green Hill housing project is due to a lack of funds flowing into the mainstream operation of the Housing and Land Development Corporation (HLDC).

This is according to Minister of Housing Montgomery Daniel, who, while speaking in Parliament on Tuesday said that all houses should be completed by the end of the year.{{more}}

“The houses at Green Hill, Mr Speaker, they are very costly because of the type of the different houses. We are building two bedroom houses, low income two bedroom houses, we are building low income three bedroom houses and we are also building middle income houses. And these have a different cost, ranging from approximately $125,000 to just over $200,000,” Daniel said.

The housing minister noted that the contracted cost for the housing project at Green Hill was approximately $4.6 million and that as of April 2015, the amount required to complete the project was $1.5 million. However, he noted that there should be a reduction to that amount, as some work has started.

“All of the houses are expected to be completed by year end, Mr Speaker. It’s just last week at the Cabinet, the Prime Minister identified required funding for completion and so at the end of this year, all of the houses would be completed,” he said.

The houses at Green Hill were expected to be completed sometime last year; however, the completion was delayed after the trough system that affected the island in December 2013. In September 2014, the HLDC told homeowners that some of them would be able to move in before the end of that year.

Some homeowners were able to move into their homes earlier this year. (BK)