Over Two Hundred Belizeans Benefit From G.O.B.’s Starter Home Program in Two Years

According to Minister Espat, over two hundred Belizeans have benefited from the starter home program since its launch in 2021. He says an additional twenty homes will be distributed in January of 2023. Minister Espat has also been lobbying with the Ministry of Finance to double his ministry’s budget for the housing program in 2023. Here is what he told us.

Julius Espat

Julius Espat, Minister of Infrastructure Development and Housing

“With the budget that we received, we were on target and we handed over two hundred. We will be handing over close to two hundred and twenty units in January which would cover the two years and what are the concerns we have had? Well, the cost of materials has increased since we started the project by and it’s not Belize it’s worldwide, but we have seen an increase of twenty five percent in the cost of materials itself, we have had to increase the cost of labour a bit because the contractors were complaining that it was a bit tight and we put out the  houses to tender and we advertise it in the newspaper. And up to today, I think we did about five times. Up to today, nobody has been able to give us a price less expensive than what we were building for. We have compared the cost per square foot to the prefabricated Mennonite homes and we are less expensive than they are. And but what has increased costs? As you have aware, every time we build a house, the cost of us reaching the House and filling the land is more than the House itself. And some people might say, why are you spending so much money accessing just one house? But our responsibility is dealing with all the roadways in the country except the municipalities. And so this to us is a start. If we do all of this infrastructure to reach this House, then in six months time I can guarantee you that you will have more houses along the way. And that’s how you build a country. That’s how the infrastructure grows and so our only limitation in all honesty is budget and this we just handed in our proposed budget for next year and we are asking for ten million for this year. And I cross my fingers; I am asking all my area reps to lobby. And we have done that in the past and it hasn’t been fruitful. So we are hoping this time that that there is a possibility of an increase in budget. If that’s the case then we could duplicate what we’re doing.”