Housing

The agreement will see the provision of police housing, valued at AU$37 million (around K100 million) over four years.

Police Commissioner, David Manning said a large part of the support will be utilised in improving living conditions for Papua New Guinea police through the building and renovation of the barracks and accommodation.

The delay of construction and supply of houses have been ongoing and is stressing the process when it comes to homebuyers purchasing houses, especially first-time homebuyers.

The company stressed that as a supplying company, several setbacks also include a Long process of housing loans, ongoing deductions by banks and delays on acquiring building permits by NCD.

Central Province Governor, Rufina Peter when delivering her independence message last week, says the Central Provincial Government has allocated funding in this year’s budget to renovate police housing at Tapini and Bereina stations.

She said the Central Provincial Government is looking to embark on a training program for reserve police personnel.

This, the Governor believes will cut down on the cost of maintaining and building housing.

“As part of our dedication to responsible corporate citizenship, we are proud to be able to ensure that police officers have proper housing,” said Lawrence Sipala, Superintendent, Local Content and Agriculture.

“We recognise and hope that our contributions to development in the region will contribute significantly to their ability to serve and protect the community effectively,” he added.

The Financial Advisory Services Agreement (FASA) was signed on Tuesday 23^rd of May, 2023, marks a historical event on Public Servants Housing. 

The FASA will see IFC act as the exclusive lead advisor in the design and implementation of the Public Service Housing Project in a Whole of Government (WoG) approach, by the Department of Prime Minister and National Executive Council (PM&NEC), and the Department of Personnel Management (DPM). 

The Port Moresby District Court dismissed the retirees' proceedings against the Commissioner of Police and the Management of the Royal Papua New Guinea Constabulary on April 28, 2023.

The retirees had been served with notices to vacate their institutional houses at the Games Village Police Barracks after their separation from the Constabulary in September 2022.

Minister Bryan Kramer said he will discuss with cabinet to engage potential contractors to look at establishing similar housing projects as that done by Red Sea Housing at Bomana, outside Port Moresby.

Discussions have taken place also with Nambawan Super on its three to four thousand housing project, with possibility of the police department securing at least 500 for its employees.

Minister Kramer said such housing schemes are necessary in the case that a police officer retires, he may as well own the house that he has been occupying.

The National Research Institute program leader of property development, Dr Eugene Ezebilo, in an interview with Loop PNG said the public sector in the country is not effective enough to address the issue of housing.

“So if the private sector is allowed to drive the housing sector, then we’ll have a lot of improvements,” reiterated Dr Ezebilo.

He said in other parts of the world, the new paradigm is what is referred to as “an enabling approach.”

My research to date has found a marked increase in people who want their own tiny house, particularly among older women.

Since the first tiny house groups appeared on Facebook in 2013, such groups and pages have proliferated. The original Facebook pages, such as Tiny Houses Australia, have nearly 50,000 followers.