2015/2016 Budget - Trinidad & Tobago

[drchaos]

Yes $230 K for a built house is cheap .... but those 230K house were falling apart, some had to be condemned and alot refurbished.
So 230K for a house that is falling apart is not cheap ... thats robbery.
Both sides have major bobol in their HDC contracts.

When will people see those two political institutions for the parasites that they are?

[zoom rader]

Yes $230 K for a built house is cheap .... but those 230K house were falling apart, some had to be condemned and alot refurbished.
So 230K for a house that is falling apart is not cheap ... thats robbery.
Both sides have major bobol in their HDC contracts.

When will people see those two political institutions for the parasites that they are?

Yeah but they not telling you is that was a 2002 price and not 2015

[Habit7]

Of course $230000 is cheap, but 2002 was 13 years ago. I paid 250K for a house in 2000 bro, its present value now is 1.1 Million

A few days before PP won the elections

Housing still a big issue

Tue, 2010-05-18 22:40 — Black_Jacobin
Author: NADALEEN SINGH
Article Date: Friday, May 21, 2010

The issue of providing much-needed houses came up early in the general election campaign.

The ruling People’s National Movement (PNM)—which said it has provided 25,000 houses since 2003—has promised to build 10,000 houses a year if it gets another term in office. In an advertisement, the PNM said the previous government—the United National Congress (UNC)—built less than 500 houses between 1996 and 2001. Kamla Persad-Bissessar, political leader of the Opposition People’s Partnership, has promised to introduce a system of cheaper housing in T&T.

Elaborating on Persad-Bissessar’s statement, Harry Partap, shadow minister of housing in the UNC, said the low-income workers cannot afford the houses the Housing Development Corporation (HDC) is building for them. “The houses are prices at $200,000 and $300,000 per unit. If the UNC were to be victorious in the election, all efforts would be made to reduce costs,” Partap said. Partap said he does not agree that the Government built 32,000 houses, but has built 11,000. Big promises from both sides of the political spectrum. The issue for whoever wins the election is whether adequate, soundly-built, affordable housing can be provided for those most in need.

- See more at: http://www.guardian.co.tt/archives/busi ... a6EFi.dpuf

[De Dragon]

Pandering to the masses was what was being done by Partap. The reality is that prices on some construction items has doubled, even tripled in the last 6-8 years. When I built back in 2008/9 a bag of cement was half what it costs now.

[Habit7]

Pandering to the masses was what was being done by Partap. The reality is that prices on some construction items has doubled, even tripled in the last 6-8 years. When I built back in 2008/9 a bag of cement was half what it costs now.

I thought inflation was low for the last 5 years. I am sure that in 2010 a bag of cement was $45. Is cement $90 now?

[sMASH]

Gravel and sand doubled and tripled, cement was $28 sumting, people worked for 100, 150, now is 350 and 450 for the same service. U could've gotten land for under a hundred grand, same ting now is upward s of 600k.
I don't need to remind of what went on to drive construction costs so high.

230k for house and land was good. Same ting now u can add near a mil to that.

A lot of the houses were reconstructed due o shoddy work.contractors told me some small ones were costed at 10k , which translated in the workmanship.

Gather evidence and prosecute.

[EFFECTIC DESIGNS]

I worked for a contractor in 2007 who used to campaign for the PNM and so he used to get HDC contracts. He used to shout at the people for using enough cement because of its price, he wanted to save as much money as possible when the houses were completed it started cracking all over because the man want to cheap out on cement and gravel. He feel sand alone go do everything the result was a disaster.
The guy used to go Guyana to get workers, then scam them and not pay the people, and nothing they could do as they were illegal down here. Borrow $300,000 in stuff from hardware after he built a good relationship with them and then not pay the people.

[Numb3r4]

^^Dude that is terrible....is there anyone you can trust in this place.

[Numb3r4]

Is there no oversight or QA/QC when it comes to the nuts and bolts of how a project is managed? Where are the engineers, the surveyors and the TTBS....everybody can't be on the payroll, can they ?

[EFFECTIC DESIGNS]

^^Dude that is terrible....is there anyone you can trust in this place.

Doubt you can trust anyone they are all the same, if you see the kind of sheit that man did eh you won't believe it. The man had Guyanese people sleeping under flatbed trucks, make them build an entire house then report them and had them deported back to Guyana. He kept on doing this over and over going there bringing people illegally then reporting them after they finished the HDC houses.

I doh know what happen to him now all I know is his business closed down years ago when manning lost the 2010 election and he went in hiding, he owed nearly half a million dollars to a major hardware in Trinidad. The guy was a genius scammer, them people never saw a cent of that money.

[sMASH]

Is there no oversight or QA/QC when it comes to the nuts and bolts of how a project is managed? Where are the engineers, the surveyors and the TTBS....everybody can't be on the payroll, can they ?

Imagine the Patrick manning stadium wasn't even fit to house criminals for the SOE.



People need to be held accountable for not giving value for tax money spent.

U need a division like the American IRS to pull up on money spending.

[pete]

Effectic, where do you buy your shrooms?

[Chimera]

While effectic is generally psycho.....what he saying about contractors hiring illegals and then reporting them to immigration is a very true occurence. Seen it happen to lots and lots of people.

[pete]

What about having them sleep under flatbed trucks?

[Dizzy28]

What about having them sleep under flatbed trucks?

Probably reminded them of home!!

[cherrypopper]

Effective. ..These guys were from the piarco/st Helena area?

[Chimera]

What about having them sleep under flatbed trucks?

Work from 6am to midnight....spend $20 and travel to your shitty apartment or sleep anywhere dry for 6 hours...under a truck,in a container, on two pallet........save a $20 travelling expense and buy breakfast.......go home on saturday night alone for the week. Sad reality for some illegals.....

[York]

Pandering to the masses was what was being done by Partap. The reality is that prices on some construction items has doubled, even tripled in the last 6-8 years. When I built back in 2008/9 a bag of cement was half what it costs now.

I thought inflation was low for the last 5 years. I am sure that in 2010 a bag of cement was $45. Is cement $90 now?

in 2000 i built a 2 storey 3000sq ft house for $275,000. the land was $65,000 approved. basically $350,000 was the mortgage loan rate from TTMF to keep low interest. A flat would have been about $150k...so $230k was high.

do those costs given include the cost of the land?

BTW sold the house after 12 yrs for $1.65M. The valuation price at the time 3 yrs ago.

In the mid '00s say 2004-5 there was a global hike of prices of construction material. Labour also went up double due to inflation. I used to pay a mason $150 in 2000, last 5 yrs was $350.

The cost for an HDC house they used to pay contractors labour $100 per sq ft in Manning administration. They used to practically give away houses at lower than cost, good (friends and family) ones in some areas like by Curepe KFC/Pizza Hut a 1/2 km on the left heading north towards curepe junction from the highway. Not sure about PP time. REMEMBER THE MINISTER OF HOUSING HAS THE CHOICE OF 25% OF THE HOUSES TO THOSE HE SELECTS.

The cost of houses (not land) for the last 5 yrs should have been between $300-$350 per sq ft or slightly higher. So it depends on the square footage of the house. Anyone has that info to compare? A 1200 sq ft (30x40) house would be $420,000 construction cost, that's cost without contractor profit.

If the land is added to the construction cost it would be $750k-$800k easily or more. i remember HDC bought a development in Calcutta #2 Freeport for $500,000 per lot it worked out to be. To allow for contractor high profit and kickbacks, a cost of $1M to $1.2M for the higher end units can be justified.

[cherrypopper]

1444921587800.jpg (30.8 KiB) Viewed 3541 times

[drchaos]

You left out the drug barons. They should be first on the list.

[cherrypopper]

You left out the drug barons. They should be first on the list.

Drugs? There is no such thing as drugs in t&t ..The government genuinely want to help the people. .

[EFFECTIC DESIGNS]

What about having them sleep under flatbed trucks?

Work from 6am to midnight....spend $20 and travel to your shitty apartment or sleep anywhere dry for 6 hours...under a truck,in a container, on two pallet........save a $20 travelling expense and buy breakfast.......go home on saturday night alone for the week. Sad reality for some illegals.....

Yeah I am not making up any of that stuff was a construction company from Chaguanas around 2007 time. The guy was a genius scammer and douche bag of the highest order. He knew his time for HDC contracts would only be there so long as Manning was in power. So he make sure he scheme and make as much money as he could in that short time. When I had left the guy had raked up $300,000+ from a hardware. Because he spent $400,000 already and built a relationship they decided to give him trust but they regretted it.

The Guyanese workers would tie their shoes with strings from cement bags cause they can't afford lace, their pants with vine from trees etc. They slept under a flatbed truck in Cunupia because it was right next to the HDC site and furthermore they had no money to pay for apartment to rent or even buy food to eat so a flat bed truck near the site was a god send. The most he did was buy them a few loaf of kiss bread and some cheese then kept lying and saying the government not giving him the money And so he kept doing that for cheap labor, all of this I witnessed personally.

Man the guy would constantly give me bad pay cheques aswell, 80% of the time the cheque keep bouncing same thing happened with everyone else. He kept giving out cheques that he knew was bad.

[dougla_boy]

call name nah...he company close....yuh fraid awa?

[EFFECTIC DESIGNS]

call name nah...he company close....yuh fraid awa?

Nah not gonna call the name, he was knee deep in sheit for money he owed, and stuff got very serious as the sub contractor who never got his money was looking for him to deal with he permanently.

Not even gonna get remotely involved even after all these years, I left that place long ago and still don't want to get involved due to what took place.

I just mentioned this to show you the kinda characters we have in this place. Douche bags of the highest order. Thankfully I helped some of them Guyanese workers get job in grocery to pack bag etc they were grateful for that much atleast.

[Chimera]

He lying bout shoelace with cement string and pants with vine though lol.

[EFFECTIC DESIGNS]

No hoss I dead serious about shoelace with string. the Vine with pants was a big of exaggeration but I am sure if he could use string for shoelace he would use vine for pants

[Habit7]

Pandering to the masses was what was being done by Partap. The reality is that prices on some construction items has doubled, even tripled in the last 6-8 years. When I built back in 2008/9 a bag of cement was half what it costs now.

I thought inflation was low for the last 5 years. I am sure that in 2010 a bag of cement was $45. Is cement $90 now?

in 2000 i built a 2 storey 3000sq ft house for $275,000. the land was $65,000 approved. basically $350,000 was the mortgage loan rate from TTMF to keep low interest. A flat would have been about $150k...so $230k was high.

do those costs given include the cost of the land?

BTW sold the house after 12 yrs for $1.65M. The valuation price at the time 3 yrs ago.

In the mid '00s say 2004-5 there was a global hike of prices of construction material. Labour also went up double due to inflation. I used to pay a mason $150 in 2000, last 5 yrs was $350.

The cost for an HDC house they used to pay contractors labour $100 per sq ft in Manning administration. They used to practically give away houses at lower than cost, good (friends and family) ones in some areas like by Curepe KFC/Pizza Hut a 1/2 km on the left heading north towards curepe junction from the highway. Not sure about PP time. REMEMBER THE MINISTER OF HOUSING HAS THE CHOICE OF 25% OF THE HOUSES TO THOSE HE SELECTS.

The cost of houses (not land) for the last 5 yrs should have been between $300-$350 per sq ft or slightly higher. So it depends on the square footage of the house. Anyone has that info to compare? A 1200 sq ft (30x40) house would be $420,000 construction cost, that's cost without contractor profit.

If the land is added to the construction cost it would be $750k-$800k easily or more. i remember HDC bought a development in Calcutta #2 Freeport for $500,000 per lot it worked out to be. To allow for contractor high profit and kickbacks, a cost of $1M to $1.2M for the higher end units can be justified.

I think you and others are missing the point. You buy one house on the free market or building a house on the free market will have a certain cost.

But building 1000 houses at once in the same area will obviously be cheaper. If you were to build one car by scratch will all customised parts, along with labour might be $1m, but build 1000 of those cars and the unit price will significantly decrease.

If you look at the article I posted where the UNC shadow minister before they won the 2010 elections said that $200-300K was too high for govt housing/and they will do it cheaper, after 5 years of low inflation you can't justify a 500% increase.

Also the govt mostly uses govt land. And when they do buy land, the acreage they buy would be significantly cheaper than lot by lot.

[De Dragon]

Pandering to the masses was what was being done by Partap. The reality is that prices on some construction items has doubled, even tripled in the last 6-8 years. When I built back in 2008/9 a bag of cement was half what it costs now.

I thought inflation was low for the last 5 years. I am sure that in 2010 a bag of cement was $45. Is cement $90 now?

in 2000 i built a 2 storey 3000sq ft house for $275,000. the land was $65,000 approved. basically $350,000 was the mortgage loan rate from TTMF to keep low interest. A flat would have been about $150k...so $230k was high.

do those costs given include the cost of the land?

BTW sold the house after 12 yrs for $1.65M. The valuation price at the time 3 yrs ago.

In the mid '00s say 2004-5 there was a global hike of prices of construction material. Labour also went up double due to inflation. I used to pay a mason $150 in 2000, last 5 yrs was $350.

The cost for an HDC house they used to pay contractors labour $100 per sq ft in Manning administration. They used to practically give away houses at lower than cost, good (friends and family) ones in some areas like by Curepe KFC/Pizza Hut a 1/2 km on the left heading north towards curepe junction from the highway. Not sure about PP time. REMEMBER THE MINISTER OF HOUSING HAS THE CHOICE OF 25% OF THE HOUSES TO THOSE HE SELECTS.

The cost of houses (not land) for the last 5 yrs should have been between $300-$350 per sq ft or slightly higher. So it depends on the square footage of the house. Anyone has that info to compare? A 1200 sq ft (30x40) house would be $420,000 construction cost, that's cost without contractor profit.

If the land is added to the construction cost it would be $750k-$800k easily or more. i remember HDC bought a development in Calcutta #2 Freeport for $500,000 per lot it worked out to be. To allow for contractor high profit and kickbacks, a cost of $1M to $1.2M for the higher end units can be justified.

I think you and others are missing the point. You buy one house on the free market or building a house on the free market will have a certain cost.

But building 1000 houses at once in the same area will obviously be cheaper. If you were to build one car by scratch will all customised parts, along with labour might be $1m, but build 1000 of those cars and the unit price will significantly decrease.

If you look at the article I posted where the UNC shadow minister before they won the 2010 elections said that $200-300K was too high for govt housing/and they will do it cheaper, after 5 years of low inflation you can't justify a 500% increase.

Also the govt mostly uses govt land. And when they do buy land, the acreage they buy would be significantly cheaper than lot by lot.

Its the actual opposite. When hardware stores, especially those "connected" ones are approached, the prices actually increase.

[Hyperion]

I have been following the Parliamentary Standing Finance Committee deliberations over the past 2 days. I must say that the PP looks very comfortable in opposition. They are a perfect fit for the role, and they have embraced it with open arms. It's almost like they glad to be back where they belong.

[zoom rader]

Pandering to the masses was what was being done by Partap. The reality is that prices on some construction items has doubled, even tripled in the last 6-8 years. When I built back in 2008/9 a bag of cement was half what it costs now.

I thought inflation was low for the last 5 years. I am sure that in 2010 a bag of cement was $45. Is cement $90 now?

in 2000 i built a 2 storey 3000sq ft house for $275,000. the land was $65,000 approved. basically $350,000 was the mortgage loan rate from TTMF to keep low interest. A flat would have been about $150k...so $230k was high.

do those costs given include the cost of the land?

BTW sold the house after 12 yrs for $1.65M. The valuation price at the time 3 yrs ago.

In the mid '00s say 2004-5 there was a global hike of prices of construction material. Labour also went up double due to inflation. I used to pay a mason $150 in 2000, last 5 yrs was $350.

The cost for an HDC house they used to pay contractors labour $100 per sq ft in Manning administration. They used to practically give away houses at lower than cost, good (friends and family) ones in some areas like by Curepe KFC/Pizza Hut a 1/2 km on the left heading north towards curepe junction from the highway. Not sure about PP time. REMEMBER THE MINISTER OF HOUSING HAS THE CHOICE OF 25% OF THE HOUSES TO THOSE HE SELECTS.

The cost of houses (not land) for the last 5 yrs should have been between $300-$350 per sq ft or slightly higher. So it depends on the square footage of the house. Anyone has that info to compare? A 1200 sq ft (30x40) house would be $420,000 construction cost, that's cost without contractor profit.

If the land is added to the construction cost it would be $750k-$800k easily or more. i remember HDC bought a development in Calcutta #2 Freeport for $500,000 per lot it worked out to be. To allow for contractor high profit and kickbacks, a cost of $1M to $1.2M for the higher end units can be justified.

Doh study Habit7, he still living in 2002.
No where in 2015 can you build a house of normal size for 250000k .

All PNM ppl will be believe that