Basseterre, St. Kitts (SKNIS): Prime Minister of St. Kitts and Nevis, Hon. Dr. Terrance Drew, has given his guarantee and made it pellucid that the “housing revolution” that his government is about to embark upon will have an over 90 percent pool of workers from St. Kitts and Nevis.
Prime Minister Dr. Drew made those comments in a roundtable interview with media representatives on May 11, 2023, at the Koi Resort.
“Nobody is going to come into St. Kitts and Nevis building houses for our people and our people are not the contractors,” he said. “Our people must be the contractors, the painters, the roofers, the carpenters, the masons, the heavy equipment operators…steel benders and whoever else is involved in the construction of these homes.”
On May 5, 2023, the Minister responsible for Housing & Human Settlement, the Hon. Dr. Geoffrey Hanley, in an address to the Nation, formally announce that “the Government of St. Kitts and Nevis and National Housing Corporation (NHC) have signed a contract with East Coast Housing Development, a Trinidadian based developer, to finance and deliver 2,400 affordable smart homes over a period of 4 years, 600 of which will be made available each year.”
Prime Minister Dr. Drew said that there is a provision in the contract for the quality assurance of the houses and that workers in St. Kitts and Nevis must be the ones to benefit from this investment.
“Part of our commitment to the people of St. Kitts and Nevis is that we will build houses…and the reason why we are pursuing this is for a number of reasons—one, people need houses; two, it gives you a chance to build wealth and three, it gives you a real stake in the country,” Prime Minister Dr. Drew said.
The prime minister said that NHC will soon be hosting a housing fair and launching a website with information on housing development where people will be able to make an online application.
All homes will be built and equipped with a refrigerator, stove and solar water heater for EC$ 111,000 for a one (1) bedroom, EC$ 213,000 for a two (2) bedroom and EC$297,00, and EC$297,000 for a three (3) bedroom.