Cuba to increase housing building subsidies

Cuba to increase housing building subsidies
Xinhua | 2013-5-7 11:02:08
By Agencies

The Cuban government has decided to extend the subsidies granted to
citizens for home construction, official daily Granma said Monday.

According to the daily, the Council of Ministers, the National Housing
Institute and the Ministry of Finance agree to promote an increase of up
to 5,000 Cuban pesos (about $208) for materials transportation expenses.

Previously, a citizen could receive only up to 80,000 Cuban pesos (about
$3,300) in subsidies for building a 25-square-meter house, and the money
could only be used to pay construction materials and labor. With the
current changes, the amount may reach up to 85,000 pesos ($3,540).

The Council of Ministers also decided to diversify the profile of
benefited people and to expand the possibilities of payments with the
given fund.

For people who build houses in seismically active areas, the amount of
subsidies can now be increased to 90,000 pesos ($3,750) to support the
acquisition of necessary materials for resistant structures, according
to the new decision.

The government started to provide subsidies for housing construction and
repair in January 2012 to aid families affected by catastrophes like
hurricanes, floods, earthquakes and fires, among other reasons.

So far, the government has granted over 566 million pesos ($23.6
million) for construction work carried out by personal initiative,
Granma reported.

Cuba is in short of housing, with a current shortfall of 600,000 houses
for its 11.2 million residents, partly due to the damages caused by
three consecutive hurricanes in 2008.

As part of the upgrading economic reforms since 2008, Cuban leader Raul
Castro approved the sale and purchase of houses, and allowed the free
sale of construction materials.

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