Antigua set to expand rent-to-own housing to Bolans and Barbuda

Prime Minister Gaston Browne has announced plans to construct 50 condominium units each in Bolans and at Louis Hill in Barbuda, with a rent-to-own payment model to be applied across both developments.

Browne made the announcement during his weekly Browne and Browne Show on Saturday, framing the expansion as a broadening of an ownership pathway the cabinet approved for Booby Alley units.

“In Bolans we’ll be building 50 condominium units similar to what we have here at Booby Alley,” Prime Minister Browne said. “We’ll have some rent-to-own options here as well as in Barbuda at Louis Hill, where we will be building another 50 condominium homes.”

The Booby Alley housing redevelopment project, located in the Pointe area, is expected to be substantially completed by June, with final handover of the units projected for August.

The EC$50 million Booby Alley project is the first stage of a much larger EC$100 million urban renewal initiative funded by a grant from the People’s Republic of China, delivering 150 condominium-style units to replace dilapidated wooden structures in one of the capital’s poorest communities.

Browne said the rent-to-own model would also extend to a planned development at Clare Hall, where Minister of Housing, Lands and Urban Renewal Maria Browne intends to build additional units.

He described the model as a vehicle for expanding home ownership to residents who may not qualify for conventional mortgages, allowing monthly rental payments to accumulate toward the purchase price of a unit.

Cabinet also approved a recommendation to cancel an existing lease on approximately 13.6 acres of crown land at Sutherlands, where a number of families have lived for years.

Browne said the land, which had remained encumbered under a lease held by a now-deceased individual Maxwell Randolph Henry would be made available for purchase by current occupants at one dollar per square foot, in keeping with a standing government policy for residents who have lived on crown land for a minimum of 20 years.

He said cabinet directed the Ministry of Housing and Works to proceed with planning a comprehensive development on the site, to include affordable housing units for low-income families, regularisation of informal settlements and the integration of community facilities.

The Minister of Works brought the Sutherlands proposal to cabinet after conducting research into the dormant lease, which Browne said had gone unaddressed for years.