Affordable housing for all

Nanise Loanakadavu
Saturday, October 13, 2012

HOUSING Authority board chairman Lieutenant Colonel Mosese Tikoitoga yesterday made a submission on housing provision to the Constitution Commission at the parliamentary complex in Suva.

In his submission, Lt-Col Tikoitoga said the Housing Authority had proposed that the government incorporated into the 'Bill of Rights', the 'Right to affordable housing for all its citizens'.

"It is the Housing Authority's vision to set goals and determine strategies that would tangibly establish a better living standard for all Fijians by the year 2020.

"To ensure economic and social security, the right of every Fijian family to a decent home under the Bill of Rights is a new basis for security and prosperity for all citizens."

He said that the incorporation of this submission into the next constitution's Bill of Rights would mean that the next government that came into office after 2014 would need to guarantee housing security as an identifiable constitutional right of every Fijian citizen.

"Our submission is being made taking into account success stories from Singapore, Malaysia and Mauritius models and how best Fiji may adjust these models in order to adequately meet our nation's housing needs," he said.

Lt-Col Tikoitoga informed the commission that total arrears stood at $17.6 million to date or 14.95 per cent of their total mortgage portfolio and their non-performing loans was recorded at 33.56 per cent of their total mortgage portfolio.