Fiji’s squatter population ‘rising’

FIJI’S squatter population is growing because there’s no affordable housing with even middle-income earners finding it hard to meet the stringent loan requirements.

National Federation Party candidate for the 2022 General Election Sashi Kiran said this in an interview with The Fiji Times.

She said for such a small-sized country, Fiji could not afford the squatter explosion.

“More and more people are telling us that educated, middle-income people, when they go and try and purchase houses, they can’t,” Ms Kiran said. “Their affordability is not there. “What do we do to create an enabling environment for first home buyers, for young people who have just graduated and want to build a house?

“Whether it’s access to land and building materials, it is very-very expensive.

“So I think something needs to be done.

“Even low-cost housing, we are told, is not so low cost anymore.

“Because private contractors work on it and we are told that EFL and Water Authority don’t engage from the beginning, so the cost keeps on building.

“So there needs to be conversation and consultations, and we need to talk about it to try and make sure that our people have affordable housing.”

She said in some places, people were living in homes that were in shambles.

“It’s causing a lot of problems and we saw that during the pandemic time as well, because people were just renting and they had to come back to their extended family.

“The homes are small, there’s overcrowding, people are living in shambles.”

BEACHCOMBER heard about a mum who was discussing a trip to the village with dad over dinner when Ms 7 quipped that she needed to be part of the trip because she hadn’t been to the village for so long.

When mum said that dad was going alone, she said she would hide in the captain’s cabin when everyone else was boarding the boat.

She’s one tough cookie!