Solomon Housing on the roll

BY GEORGINA KEKEA

SHL 2 bedroom house at Kombevatu

WITH the vision to provide durable, affordable and quality homes in the country, Solomon Housing Limited (SHL) is now on the roll to sell its remaining houses at Kombevatu.

With a different market approach, yesterday SHL did a presentation for staff of Central Bank of Solomon Islands (CBSI) showcasing the houses in general through a presentation slide at the Central Bank’s complex.

Carrying out the presentation SHL Lending Officer, Algren Gilbert says the 12 houses that they have shown in the slides are two bedroom houses.

“The houses that you see, we have different contractors that built the houses and we do not deal with only one contractor but have different contractors,” Mr Gilbert says.

He revealed that the houses are selling at SBD$500,000.

With that a CBSI staff says the staff listening to the presentation are not familiar with how the housing market and building works.

Thus it is very important that these staff are made aware of the nitty gritty stuff of housing, construction and costs involved.

Responding to the comment and questions raised on the cost of a house, General Manager of SHL acknowledged the cost to be at the high end as it covers every aspect of home building that includes materials, labour, land, road, drainage, connection of water and electricity.

CBSI staff listening to SHL presentation

He says with the houses, buyers will only need to purchase the house before having the title transferred to them.

He says buyers will only need to look for money or consult the banks for assistance through their lending schemes.

Also SHL General Manager says they support local Solomon Islanders with house plans that costs only $1500 but includes the material breakdown and the costings as well.

“This is one way in which we can assist locals to build a good house for their families. As you know, housing plans by architects are costly and not only that, going through the Town and Country Planning Board would be a tedious process and one that can be avoided since the building plan issued by SHL are already passed by the Board.”

Housing is a longtime issue for Solomon Islanders living in Honiara with most city dwellers residing in informal settlements where it is much cheaper and affordable for them.

SHL currently has a five year Strategy (2017-2022) that sets the scope of its operations.

From the presentation yesterday, hope now was for the day when SINPF can set up a lending facility so SINPF members can loan from it to acquire homes built by SHL.

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