Commission sets focus on housing

By HELEN TARAWA
THE Constitutional and Law Reform Commission (CLRC) is considering a public-private partnership (PPP) policy for housing to be recommended to the Government.
CLRC acting director research and publication Xavier Winnia told The National that a discussion paper was being put together for the PPP arrangement that would enable funding and bring in investors to build proper houses for citizens.
Winnia said an Independent Consumer Competition Commission report stated that real estate was a sleeping giant that could power up this nation.
“Given the nature of the issue, government should focus on housing as the current legal system on housing was fragmented,” he said.
“This industry is unregulated, it’s the game of a player with a lot of money who has influence over small players and as a result, Papua New Guineans miss out.”
Winnia said the Department of Lands and Physical Planning was working on two bills and the National Housing Corporation was reviewing the housing policy.
“CLRC is now working on how to coordinate these different legislations to come up with a single bill to properly regulate and address these issues,” he said.
“This is also where the issue of taxation kicks in and right now, it’s a big mess.
“CLRC is looking at creating a system to bring all these issues together.
“When we talk about real estate, it’s about housing and these are the practical issues where public servants are living in settlements.
“We are also aware of housing schemes such as Gerehu Stage 3B, Duran Farm, but we need to bring all these under a proper regulatory system or mechanism.”
Winnia said landowners have to be factored into the equation to participate in the real estate industry.