How ‘public’ is affordable housing?
In the market for lower to middle income housing, the line between ‘public’ and ‘affordable’ has been blurred.
Post Property Analysis
Local property developer, WorldBridge Land, Co. Ltd., and Singapore-based construction company, Strait Construction Group Pte, Ltd, last week announced a $100 million Memorandum of Understanding on affordable housing with the government. …
Supporting a lack of clarity surrounding the government’s direct ownership of new housing projects, at last week’s signing of the Memorandum of Understanding between the Government, WorldBridge and Strait Construction, Im Chunnlim, senior minister of the Ministry of Land Management, Urban Planning and Construction, reiterated that Cambodia’s government has drafted a policy on housing which indicates seven choices to solve housing issues, one of which shall be a collaboration with the private sector. …
What also remains unclear is the mechanism, through which subsidies could be raised. An employee of WorldBridge mentioned to Post Property on the phone that taxation relieves on imported construction material could be a form of government subsidy that would pay for the discount on the original price per housing unit. In addition to that, construction permits could be granted to the developer for free. Whether these subsidy mechanisms – which were not brought up in senior minister Im’s rundown of subsidy solutions – would suffice for subsidies in housing units, Oknha Rithy said he could not comment until “after our team finalised it”. …
Post Staff
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/how-public-affordable-housing
