NHC signs new housing project

By DOREEN
POLOH WAIM
THE National Housing Corporation (NHC) has joined the government’s public-private partnership programme to provide affordable housing for Papua New Guineans.
This was revealed during a media conference last Thursday where the NHC, Hardware Haus and ANZ Bank signed an agreement to participate in the project.
Under the agreement, the Kwik Built division of Hardware Haus will build 35 steel frame kit homes in Port Moresby for the NHC with 24 at Tokarara and 11 at Gerehu.
Markham MP and Minister for Housing Paul Isikiel said although they had missed out on the 2013 budget, they were still focused on delivering affordable housing for the seven million population of PNG.
He said the project that they had embarked on was a start to bring confidence back to the people that they would deliver what had been neglected or never been done.
The minister said they were also closely working with the Lands Department to transfer under-developed land (UDL) to the NHC so that this land could be used to provide more housing.
NHC acting managing director John Dege said he was humbled that they were eventually going to provide low cost housing for people under PPP and build, sell and share arrangement.
He added that people should now have confidence with the “new look” NHC which was prepared to deliver what had been lacking for years.
Hardware Haus chief executive officer Richard McGuiness said they were passionate about the project as it would be a breath of fresh air to many Papua New Guineans.
McGuiness said their Kwik Built kit home products had gone through redesign programmes to ensure its durability and came complete with kitchen, bathroom and all standard supply materials included.
He said it was a huge project and also encouraged other building companies to be involved in such partnerships and to have the opportunity to get people into affordable housing.
The cost of purchasing the houses will be around K250,000 to K300,000.
Under the partnership arrangement, ANZ bank will be facilitating the purchasing of the houses through an affordable home loan ownership scheme where credit criteria will be assessed.