Chang

GOVERNMENT COULD soon unveil plans for the building of housing for middle-income young professionals.

Housing Minister Dr Horace Chang said at a recent post-Cabinet press briefing that the Government considered it important to create affordable housing solutions for this group.

"We are concerned about it (housing for young professionals)," Dr Chang said.

The housing minister said consultations were taking place at various levels to address the subject. He added that he could make an announcement in a matter of weeks or by the time he makes his contribution to the Sectoral Debate in a few months.

"I cannot make an announcement now, but there is extensive consultations taking place between the various agencies, which include the National Housing Trust, the National Housing Development Corporation - which we hope to rebrand - and the Mortgage Bank, to look at mechanisms to ensure we can provide housing for young professionals," Dr Chang said.

The housing minister said that the result of these meetings could mean "changes in how we do various things from financing to design and construction not only of individual units, but entire schemes".

Housing for middle-income young professionals has been a plank on which politicians have gained the ear of this constituency.

Developments to take place

Former Prime Minister P.J. Patterson, for example, mandated the NHT in 2004 to provide housing for this group in the Corporate Area.

The lands on which the Office of the Commissioner of Police is located on Old Hope Road in St Andrew, and the old Rape Unit, now the Centre for the Investigation of Sexual Offences and Child Abuse, on Ruthven Road, St Andrew, were identified as sites and plans were made for the relocation of the police offices.