Housing care ‘whirlpool’: when will you ever learn?

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THE fact that the government is in a whirlpool when it comes to the housing care file, just like other thorny files, is not a secret. What is worse is that the problem continues to escalate, and we do not see any keenness to find solutions to it.

This is despite the fact that various platforms such as newspapers, press and social media have turned into an exhibition of everything that can lead to an end to this crisis that has lasted for more than 40 years, while the Cabinet seems to be in another world.

The housing issue is one of the main axes of development in the country that stimulate the markets. Therefore, its continuation in this state means prolonging the economic stagnation. Also, the lack of relevant regulations increases the visual and environmental pollution, which is basically one of the most complex problems in the country.

It is obvious that the officials in the Public Authority for Housing Welfare, the Kuwait Municipality and the Ministry of State for Housing Affairs have seen the new cities in the United Arab Emirates, especially those that the Emirate of Dubai has begun to build based on only four designs that take into account the needs of each family.

The prices set are an equivalent of KD 70,000, KD 90,000, KD 100,000 and KD 120,000. They are payable by installments over a period of 25 years, without interest for low-income earners, or with governmental guarantees. The waiting period has been reduced to a few months to obtain the appropriate housing.

Throughout the world, there are housing banks that work in partnership between the public and private sectors to finance real estate loans. In many countries, the state covers the interests and guarantees of the loans. On the other hand, the government in Kuwait is going the opposite way, as it links the granting of land to a set of insoluble contracts.

While it agreed to abolish the mortgage law imposed by MPs and influential people, who saw it as a way to monopolize more land and increase its prices, it is now seeking to pass it under the name of “real estate financing”. The beneficiaries of the current situation are trying to obstruct this important legislation that eases the burdens on a segment of the population, as many of them have fallen prey to the insane rise in housing and land prices.

In this regard, some give several unrealistic justifications related to the issue of housing and financing, the most important of which is maintaining the random nature of construction in an effort to take advantage of the spaces built for leasing. Their argument is that these apartments are for children when they grow up, even though the state guarantees housing care for all.

For this and other reasons, it seems that residential care will remain an endless cycle as long as the Prime Minister, Minister of State for Housing Affairs and the Public Authority for Housing Welfare do not find a solution, do not hear what experts say about solutions, and do not learn from others.

By Ahmed Al-Jarallah

Editor-in-Chief, the Arab Times

This news has been read 19579 times!