News

Minister of Housing, Hon. Jay Ebanks was joined by several members of the Cabinet and Board of the National Housing Development Trust (NHDT) in breaking ground for the upcoming affordable housing development project which will be located on North Side Road in the district of North Side.

The subdivision design for the housing project incorporates forty-five housing lots.

The ground breaking ceremony, which was held recently was attended by the Premier Hon. Wayne Panton, Deputy Premier and Minister of Finance and Development Hon. Christopher Sanders, Parliamentary Secretaries Hon. Katherine Ebanks- Wilks, Isaac Rankine, Heather Bodden and Dwayne Seymour. Also in attendance were Speaker of the House Hon. McKeeva Bush, members of the newly appointed NHDT Board of Directors led by Chairman Geoffry Ebanks, Acting Chief Officer Leyda Nicolson-Makasare and staff of the Ministry of Planning, Agriculture, Housing and Infrastructure.

Premier Hon. Wayne Panton commended the Housing Minister and team at the NHDT for their work in getting the project off the ground noting that, “home ownership is part of the Caymanian dream for individuals to have an affordable home to raise one’s family and have the opportunity to have that leg up to start to build wealth for themselves”.

He further said, “I am proud of the support that the Government has provided to the National Housing Development Trust to ensure that everyone has the opportunity to be able to afford housing in this country. It is fitting that the first project in North Side is being spearheaded by representative and Minister of Housing Jay Ebanks. I look forward to seeing this project come to fruition, to seeing the people of North Side have access to housing at an affordable cost and to have that continue throughout the rest of the country”.

Minister of Housing, Hon. Jay Ebanks emphasised that the PACT Government is committed to empowering the NHDT to increase the number of affordable houses across districts and ensuring that they will be energy efficient and sustainable units. “We are also very conscious of the environment and as you can see, we saved as many trees as possible and left as much buffer so we can have a natural feel,” he said.

Minister Ebanks also added, “I can assure my Caymanian people that there will be many such projects for housing to come. My plan as Minister is to see that NHDT rolls out a minimum of seventy-five houses energy-efficient per year under the leadership of the Board”.

Chairman of NHDT Board Mr. Geoffrey Berry said the team was excited about the ground breaking and will hit the ground running so that they can get as many people as possible into affordable homes.

The NHDT currently has other ongoing housing development projects in East End, Bodden Town and West Bay.