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Contact:
Claudia Monlouis
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Prime Minister Dr. Kenny D. Anthony
addressing sod turning ceremony |
Tuesday, April 06, 2004 - Pronouncing 2004 as a year for housing, Prime
Minister and Minister for Finance and Economic Affairs, Honourable Dr. Kenny
Anthony on Monday, April 5th, 2004 reiterated his plea for young persons to
invest in property. The Prime Minister made the call at the ground-breaking
ceremony of the Choc Gardens Housing Development.
“I want to say this especially to our young people. You are not going to get
mortgage rates as low as this in a hurry. So, you’ve got to make use of it now.
As I have preached to you before, leave the used cars alone and invest in land”,
Dr. Anthony said.
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Hon. Ferguson John Minister for Physical Development,
Environment and Housing and Hon. Ignatius Jean District Representative for
Castries North symbolically break ground |
Warning that land was becoming a scarce commodity in St. Lucia, and citizens
should now make the move to take advantage of the competitive lending rates, as
well as government’s concentration on the development of housing, he said, “I
have to tell you that in the last two years, I have seen rising interests in
holiday homes in St. Lucia, and hardly a week goes by if the Minister of Finance
is not invited to approve the purchase of a holiday home by a non-national.”
Dr. Anthony said further, “When the CARICOM Single Market and Economy (CSME)
comes around in the next couple of years, we St. Lucian nations, will have to
compete with other Caribbean nationals on identical terms, and we must be
prepared for that.”
The Choc Gardens project is expected to yield some 250 service lots, 94 of them
between 5000 and 7000 square ft. Eighty-four of those lots are between
7001-10,000 square feet, while 67 lots are above 10,000 square feet. The housing
package will include single family units and multi-family units.
The public will be notified on the commencement of the application process for
service lots and land, and house packages, which shall be offered on a
first-come first-serve basis. However, Managing Director of the National Housing
Corporation, Joseph Alexander says an accurate indication of the selling price
of the land cannot be given at this time, pending the completion of preliminary
earth works.
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