Tuesday, January 6, 2009

Raul on housing

Raul Castro visited a site in Santiago where “petrocasas,” prefabricated homes donated by Venezuela, were being built, and spoke about “not prohibiting” people from building their own homes on approved sites. Granma’s coverage is here. An AFP story calls it “one of the latest reforms to back off the hardline communism of the past five decades,” which seems to go a little far. It’s not clear that any law or regulation is changing, or if Raul is sending a signal that autorities are going to ease up on inspections and regulatory enforcement. It may turn out to be an opportunity for remittances from Miami to help attack Cuba’s housing deficit.

4 comments:

leftside said...

This would appear to be a law change Phil. And a major one at that (up there with the farm land). I would have thought you would see that. This is not the sort of thing - like taxis or whatever - where enforcement is relatively meaningless. Strict regulation and enforcement of these new homes will be vital to assure they are being built to code and by Cubans for Cubans.

Anonymous said...

Cubans have always built their houses, those houses destroyed by the hurricanes were built by the people who lived in them. No change. Most Cubans can not depend on the govt. for housing. In Cuba people build a roof over their heads any way they can.

leftside said...

The Government built 45,000 homes last year in Cuba. That is an equivalent of approximately 1.13 million homes in the US, based on population. In comparision, the entire US homebuilding industry (public and private) is on pace to build 616,000 homes based on November figures. 75% of all housing in Cuba has been built since the Revolution.

Anonymous said...

AFP le anota una reforma surrealista a Raúl Castro