by Verenaisi Raicola
Fiji Times - Friday, January 14, 2011
Some of the participants at the Housing Forum at Southern Cross Hotel in Suva. Picture ATU RASEA
THERE are plans to ensure that the Waila City Project Development offers homes that are indeed cheap and affordable.
Answering questions from the floor in yesterday's National Policy Stakeholders consultative forum in Suva, Housing Authority chief executive officer Alipate Naiorosui said they had already received 4000 expressions of interest from families.
He reassured the forum that an Environment Impact Assessment of the 700-acre freehold land in Waila had been conducted. He reiterated that they aimed to make housing affordable for all in Fiji.
Mr Naiorosui said they aimed to sell a two-bedroom home for a pricetag of between $20,000 and $25,000.
He said by the time the Waila project kick-starts, they hoped to have the new cement factory in operation so there could be cheap and affordable housing materials available.
Mr Naiorosui said they were studying the option of having Waila City under a municipality of its own.
"At the moment the maintenance of Waila falls under the Nausori Rural Local Authority but we are looking at other options and one of it is to have a municipality of its own," he said.
Mr Naiorosui made the comment when responding to a question on who would carry out maintenance in the area.
Top Symphony architect Ken Chan, the developers of Waila City, said the key feature of the master plan was dedicated to 40 per cent of affordable housing.
He added that it would be interesting to see how this would turn out as affordable homes was a necessity.
Mr Chan said as the project proceeds, things would be fine-tuned.
He said the Waila City would be constructed in seven phases and would take seven to 10 years to complete.
"Market forces will dictate future phases of the project," he said.
The total cost of the project stands at $1billion.
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