Why house prices are high

National

By LUKE KAMA
THE high cost of housing in Port Moresby and other urban centres around the country is really a “supply issue” that the Government needs to address, Dr Thomas Webster says.
Webster, who is the former director of National Research Institute (NRI), said this yesterday during the launch of a report on housing and property development in PNG over the last 40 years.
He said the high cost of housing was partly due to poor coordination across stakeholders from the conceptual planning stage when a green field was released to the final sale of houses.
“We have discussions with the private sector including three major property and housing estate developers in the country during the reviews,” he said.
“One of their main issues that leads to high cost of housing is the high costs of trunk infrastructures such as roads, water and sewerage, electricity and the high cost of building materials.”
Webster said the other issue identified was the lack of support and effectiveness of key state agencies.
These included delays in securing the requisite approvals from the physical planning board, the building board and timely responses from companies responsible for utilities such as water and electricity.
“The above translates into loss of time and resources with the cost passed onto the buyers.”