Mega middle class housing projects soon

The Construction and Engineering Services Ministry has drawn up a plan to construct 100,000 houses for the low-income groups, including public servants scattered across the country. An island-wide survey carried out by the Ministry reveals that around 1 million houses are needed by people in the low-income groups.
Tenders have already been called from investors and China, Russia, Singapore, Hong-Kong and Malaysia have responded to construct the required houses, the Construction and Engineering Services Ministry said.

Construction and Engineering Services Minister Rajitha Senaratne told The Island Financial Review that within the next 3 years around 100,000 houses consisting of 750 sq.ft, 3 rooms, a parlour and a kitchen for each house would be constructed for the people in low-income group. The middle-income groups would also be able to purchase one house at a cost of Rs.600,000 up to Rs.1.5 million.

He said that a group of Malaysian investors who had held several discussions with him on the construction of houses would commence the construction work shortly. The investors during the discussions were interested in investing for major housing projects in Sri Lanka as the discussions included the cost of each house, land prices and the required infrastructure facilities for each house.

Minister Senaratne outlined that the investors would be able to carry on the construction of houses under the Board of Investment (BOI) facilities and lands and ancillary facilities would be provided by the government. The government was convinced that the housing shortages of the middle class and the people in the low-income groups could be solved gradually when the expected houses were built. The housing projects would focus on providing houses to public servants as public servants would be able obtain credit facilities from banks to purchase houses.

He pointed out that after the due completion of the due payments a title deed would be issued to every house owner and in case an owner was not satisfied with the house he or she could sell the house to another person. He had asked the Malaysian investors to submit a comprehensive report on the proposed housing projects to him.

Minister Senaratne said that apart from the Malaysian investors, investors from China, Russia, Simgapore and Korea had expressed their willingness to construct houses. The Chinese and Singapore investors had come forward to build 50,000 houses and Russian and Korean investors would construct another 50,000 houses for middle class and the low-income groups.

Referring to the local construction companies, Minister Senaratne said that the different types of houses which were being constructed by some local companies were extremely expensive and beyond the reach of the ordinary people. The demand for such houses was extremely low, but when cheaper houses were constructed ordinary people would be able to purchase them at their discretion.