By Regina Thomas on Monday, 2 May, 2022 at 05:15 PM

Phillip Babb, Member Relations Officer of the Barbados Public Workers Cooperative Credit Union, says the HOPE project is a great investment for first-time home buyers.

There was a ceremony held on Saturday to unveil the homes of the Home Ownership Providing Energy (HOPE) project. It was attended by Prime Minister Mia Mottley and other members of the public sector. In the Prime Minister’s speech to potential home buyers, she said this was the government’s initiative to make houses more affordable to the public, claiming rent money was “dead money”.

The houses are described as hurricane resilient and are outfitted with photovoltaic (PV) systems – a variation of solar panels which convert energy into electricity.

Babb said this is a great investment for applicants as their “electricity cost will be null and void”. He also mentioned land would not be considered when applying for a mortgage because the land was gifted by NHC which gives persons "significant equity”, meaning a lower mortgage and a greater return on their investment.

He explained, “let’s say the land is $100,000 and the house is $172,000, that is 272,000. The person might only be applying for $200,000 [mortgage]”.

Barbadians who are employed and are not current homeowners making less than $4000 monthly in their gross pay, qualify to apply for a home a part of the HOPE project.