Land Availability for Future Housing Development a Challenge for Government

The availability of land for future housing development on island has been listed as a serious challenge for the Government of Montserrat.

And this, as they seek to increase access to home ownership for qualified low to middle-income households.

According to the recently released 2021-2022 National Performance report, there has been some progress under the home ownership programme through the use of public/private partnership investment strategy, facilitated by the Housing Unit.

The home ownership programme includes the issue of housing grants, duty free concessions, and the issuance of residential service lots, in order to expand the local housing stock for low to middle-income households.

Its say however, the Ministry has been faced with challenges relating to the availability of resourcing and the availability of land for housing developments.

For the period in question, no new service slots were issued.

The report says the Government is still awaiting the soil assessment, which it believes is a concern if the Government were to fulfill some of the housing solutions.

Affordable housing solutions for those persons with lower incomes are key to the island’s development as they reduce the risk of homelessness, and provides a sense of stability for those families with children.

The report further adds that access to social housing can also break the cycle of poverty as it gives a sense of stability to new home owners, and persons are more likely to seek employment.