The Housing Authority says that the $150 million government guarantee has been there for Housing Authority for a number of years.

This was highlighted by the Chief Executive of the Housing Authority Ritesh Singh.

Singh says the guarantee was expiring, so the government decided to renewed $150 million guarantee.

“The $150 million is basically used by Housing Authority to fund itself, which basically means we use the guarantee to borrow money from the bonds market, from the local financial institutions.”

Singh states that the borrowing is then used to purchase land and develop it after which they sell it back to their customers to recover that money.

He says that this guarantee expired after five years, and now we’ve got a renewal for another five years and they express their appreciation for the support provided to by the government.

Last week during the 2024-2025 National budget debate, Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka supported the motion on the renewal of the Government guarantee of $150 million for the Housing Authority’s borrowings for another five years and that the Housing Authority pay a guarantee fee of 0.5 percent on the cumulative utilized guarantee credit.

Rabuka highlighted that the funds raised by Housing Authority will be used to acquire new land, carry out development and projects for fully serviced lots, and provide cash loans to customers for new house construction and the purchase of new houses.