NHEL receives land titles

 THE National Housing Estate Ltd (NHEL) was yesterday presented 48 land titles by the Lands Department to develop its K38 million Gobuta Street Estate at Tokarara in Port Moresby.

NHEL will develop the estate through a joint venture with Australian-based Berkeley Capital.

During the presentation yesterday, NHEL general manager (special projects) Madeline Paulisbo thanked Lands Department Acting Secretary Luther Sipison for responding giving them the titles to help develop the estate.

“We (NHEL) have the mandate to deliver quality and affordable houses to the people of PNG,” she said.

“But without land titles we cannot build a house, without a title our clients cannot obtain mortgages over our properties.”

Paulisbo commend the Government for its public-private partnership policy of which this project is an example.

As part of the joint venture, NHEL is making available land to Berkeley Capital that will then build 48 houses and sell through the K400 million First Home Ownership Scheme loans.

Berkeley Capital construction manager Alex Simpson said the one-stop shop was where they could do everything, from loan arrangement to construction of houses.

“We will arrange for our clients to ensure that they secure loans, build their houses and then maintain it to ensure that it meets standards.”

Simpson said construction of homes would start next week and be of Australian standard. Out of the 48 houses, 41 have been pre-sold.

Paulisbo said each house was estimated to cost between K600,000-K700,000 and each buyer had to pay a 30 per cent up-front.