Okaz

 

 

Day after day we receive a reply from the Housing Ministry which wakes up citizens from the dreams instilled in them of owning a private home in the very near future.

 

Since this ministry was established, it has been following a policy of devastating the hopes and ambitions of citizens who are looking for homes to accommodate them.

 

The latest news coming from the ministry is that it will soon announce its strategic plan. When you hear the word “strategy” you will come to believe that the ministry has found a radical solution to the issue of accommodation.

 

Unfortunately you will soon realize that its strategic plan is only aimed at stopping giving out land grants to the citizens and to provide them, instead, with ready-made housing units.

 

The pretext the ministry has used to stop land grants to the citizens is the scarcity of lands suitable for building houses. This lame excuse will make you feel that the size of our “spacious” country is not more than that of Malta or Monaco.

 

If the ministry fails to find empty and suitable lands while our economy is very strong and our population is very little, what will it do if there is a population explosion or an economic decline?

 

Before you venture to answer this question, you will be in for a big surprise. The ministry has announced that it will not be able to build more than 200,000 housing units because it does not have enough land plots.

 

I do not think that the ministry’s mission is similar to that of the real estate offices, which is to look for empty lands in the residential areas.

 

 I always believed that the task of the ministry was to reduce the intensive pressure on the big cities through the creation of new towns that would attract more citizens.

 

The present conditions of the ministry made many citizens hope that the status quo would go back to what it was before the ministry was created.

 

In the past, the citizen would apply for a land grant then he would ask for a loan to build a home on it. He would receive both his requests no matter how late.

 

Today the land and the loan are both in the ministry’s hands. The ministry has already announced that it was not able to provide the land plots and would provide ready-made houses instead. It will not be surprising if it also said it would not be able to extend loans.

 

Therefore the dreams of citizens to obtain lands and loans have vanished in thin air. Even their dreams of owning apartments have crumbled before the ministry’s announcement that it would not be able to build more than 200,000 housing units.