The Housing Authority has revealed that there is a shortage of qualified engineers and surveyors in the country.

General Manager, Poasa Verevakabau says recruitment of technical team remains an on-going challenge for the Authority.

The Authority launched its own construction arm in 2017 with the aim to provide affordable housing for low to middle-income earners.

Verevakabau says since the launching of this – large sums has been forked out to pay for the engineers and surveyors.

“Engineers and surveyors are one of the challenges that we normally face as they are in high demand and there’s a shortage of them, therefore at times we need to really negotiate on their salary scale in order to get good engineers.”

Verevakabau says the solution for this is to procure experts from overseas to assist with housing development.

He adds the Authority is currently in discussion with Asian Development Bank and ICF bank to assist with funding for this solution.