Cité Fond D’Or Residence in La Savane.
MARIGOT--Some 52 families who were allocated housing at the new Cité Fond D’Or residences in La Savane received a welcome Christmas present when they were given the keys to their apartments just recently after months of delay.
Cité Fond D’Or is a 12-million-euro development project brought to fruition by Semsamar, its first housing delivery since 2017. It was appropriate that Semsamar President and CEO Alain Richardson was present for the hand-over. Successive crises, the COVID pandemic, rise in price of materials and shipping, and construction company setbacks all contributed to the delay in implementing the project.
The tenants were not yet able to move in fully, as the electrical installation had not yet been finalised, but should be in the next few days. This latest delay caused some difficulties for the families who had to give notice to leave their old homes.
Despite this setback, the tenants were pleased to be taking possession of their new homes in this residence in La Savane, where the rents are very attractive compared to market prices. For the 18 social housing units, T3 apartments of around 60m2, the rent is between 500 and 600 euros per month. The 34 other homes, 86m2 T4 semi-detached villas with a small garden, are priced at 980 euros per month.
The construction of these new residences has been in the pipeline since 2016. At that time, there was already a strong demand for new housing, which increased tenfold following the passage of Hurricane Irma in 2017. Since then, social landlords, including Semsamar, have had to focus on restoring their rental properties, which were severely affected by the cyclone. To date, social landlords have been unable to deliver any new rental housing.
At the same time, in addition to the destruction of a number of homes, with owners opting for the more lucrative seasonal rentals, the private rental stock has also been reduced, and in line with the law of supply and demand on the market, very sharp rises in rents have been recorded, creating a major housing crisis.
Richardson pointed out that the 52 new homes bring Semsamar's rental housing inventory to around 1,500, but the number is still insufficient to meet the very high demand. In the case of Cité Fond D’Or, some 300 applications were submitted and 52 accepted. In other words, 250 families are still waiting for decent accommodation at a reasonable rent.
