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The demand for new housing lots remains high says Housing Authority of Fiji Chief Executive Ritesh Singh.

Under its New Lot Allocation Policy which consists of various screening processes, the Authority has for the first time allocated lots using a barrel draw.

Singh says they received 261 applications for the 103 lots that were developed in Covata, Labasa.

“Those that were successful earlier were advertised in the newspapers and provisional letters have now been awarded to all these customers via the barrel draw. We have got Mokosoi, Deuba, that is that we receive 185 expression of interest only for 35 lots and for Tavakubu in Lautoka that is 127 lots.”

Singh further states that with consultation from the Ministry of Housing, they also developed a policy for sitting tenants.

“So we had some sitting tenants in there which is informal settlers and there are 57 of that in stage one and stage two. These families will be funded through the informal settlement policy and they will be awarded a block each. The remaining 52 blocks is what we will be advertising through the, or we’ve already advertised through the EOI.”

Singh further explained to the Public Account Committee members the reason why their loan portfolio is reducing.

He adds they are funding the low to medium income segment of the market.

“Once these customers have got enough capital and their property is appreciated in value, we are losing one million dollars a month of this loan going to banks because our customers are in healthy financial position. They can borrow more money from the banks for personal loans, car loans and other lifestyle. So these are the loans that Housing Authority doesn’t do and we are very much just focused on developing lots and selling mortgages to our customers.”

With the release of Covata, Mokosoi, and Tavakubu lots in the market this year, the Housing Authority aims to grow its home loan book back to $100 million.