KUWAIT: While the housing committee is still seeking a quick solution for the housing problem and making waiting lists shorter, a government source told a local daily that the only solution is more apartment buildings and giving citizens waiting for a house a flat instead. According to Eid Al-Shihri, Founder of the 'Waiting for a House' campaign, this proposal is neither realistic nor logical. "The report didn't mention the number of apartments they are talking about. I think that such a proposal can be approved if we were suffering from shortage of lands. As we have empty lands, it's cheaper for the government to give plots than build flats, as for the land they only need to set up the infrastructure at a cost of between KD 10,000-14,000, while a flat costs about KD 130,000," he told Kuwait Times.
There are other factors for rejecting this proposal. "The execution period of the so-called vertical housing is much longer. With the present housing crisis, we need quick solutions and people to receive their house as soon as possible. If we look at the flats that were supposed to be delivered and haven't in Jaber Al-Ahmad area, we see that they are working on this project for more than four years and it's not complete yet. A house can be built in less than two years, and this is the opinion of the Engineers' Society," added Shihri. The government should provide 170,000 housing units, he said. "We demand 12,000 units annually. With this calculation, within 15 years, all the pending applications for a house will be done with. Some people think that the number of applications will increase more, but this is not necessarily correct, as according to the statistics, the number of applications is decreasing. In 2006, the number was 9,000 applications, while it dropped to 8,139 in 2008," he explained. The members of the campaign are currently negotiating with the minister of housing to sign a contract for releasing properties in Mutlaa. "We are pressing the minister to release 12,000 housing units in Mutlaa so people will be able to take possession in 2015. Instead of calling it Mutlaa City, which would take more than six years, if we change its name to Nawaf Al-Ahmad area, it can be executed within two or three years.
We expect that the prices of properties will drop after signing this deal, so people will be able to buy land," concluded Shihri. Bashar Al-Istath, a member of the campaign, thinks that the proposal for apartments is a test of public reaction. "If people don't protest against it, especially on social media, then they may approve it and apply it. In my opinion, such a solution should be optional as about 95 percent of citizens want a house, while maybe 5 percent may agree to a flat to avoid waiting years for a house. It's good to have a variety of housing units, but this is not our main demand. Our basic demand is to release properties and we insist on 12,000 housing units every year," he said. According to him, the government is not serious in solving this issue. "In the past, the Public Authority for Housing Care used to say that they don't have lands available to release for housing as the Ministry of Oil along with the Ministry of Defense, which are both responsible for giving approvals to build on any property, didn't give them approval.
This statement now turns to be misleading and not true anymore, as the PAHR has received 160,000 plots that were approved by the ministries since 2008, and they didn't do anything about it. They keep telling people there are no lands," stressed Istath. He doesn't believe that the parliament will back their demand and may stand with the government on their proposal, especially since most MPs are pro-government. "We can agree on this proposal as a partial solution but not as the main solution. If there is somebody really representing us in the parliament, all these youth campaigns won't be launched as we have work and family and we have to spend time for the campaign's activities. We have money and we have lands in Kuwait, so why should we suffer," he wondered
© Kuwait Times 2013
