Church commission says cost of property worrying

The Diocesan Commission for Justice and Peace has expressed concern about the cost of property.

In a paper issued yesterday, commission chairman Godfrey Leone Ganado voiced concern about the "endemic and uncontrollable speculative practices" in the property market.

He called on both political and social players to make it their top priority to address the issue if they truly believe in social inclusion and a sustainable standard of living.

"A truly anti-poverty and sustainable standard of living approach cannot exclude housing from the collective aspects of the common good," the document said. Referring to the State Of The Construction Industry Report published by the Building Industry Consultative Council, the commission pointed out that the average compounded cost of flats went up by 56.5 per cent and that of maisonettes by 48.6 per cent since January 2004.

It added, however, that despite the official statistics, there was general disagreement about the real inflation rate of property. Mr Leone Ganado said it was also evident that over the past three years the size of flats and maisonettes decreased.

The cost of property was pushed up by the number of individuals or consortia involving themselves as middlemen in the chain of property deals.

Moreover, the fact that properties were being knocked down less than 10 years after being built was leading to wastage of building materials, also leading to inflation.

He said couples falling in the middle income bracket were having to resort to home loans equivalent to 80 per cent of the cost of property, adding that the inflation rate of property prices was much steeper than rises in average income.

When contacted, Family and Social Solidarity Minister Dolores Cristina welcomed the paper and said she had already made arrangements to meet commission representatives next week to discuss the document. Ms Cristina said society had a collective responsibility to address the issue effectively.

"As one can surely appreciate, the issue of housing cannot be isolated from other realities that are further accentuated by the phenomenon of globalisation. The economic constraints arising from this phenomenon are of major concern," she said. The commission mentioned renting as an alternative to buying property and highlighted the "importance and urgency" of revising the rent laws.

However, Ms Cristina said, if a correlation existed between the two, this would have been felt following the liberalisation of residential rents in 1995.

The minister said that during the 2005-2006 financial year, the Housing Authority registered a social expenditure of Lm2.76 million, adding that the majority of beneficiaries were young families.