Harnessing youthful energy through affordable habitats
As young people start their journey into
adulthood, they face a plethora of constraints that forces them to
rethink their priorities. Countless times you'll hear them shrug off their
own novel ideas of entrepreneurship with an air of dejection – some seek
solutions abroad, most are forced to remain, and remain anxious about the
repayment of their lifelong shackles.
Financially drained
Indeed, a large
majority of young Mauritians (50% salaried adults earn less than Rs 16,000) who
have managed to settle down are chained to mortgage loan repayments for at
least 25 years, which is until retirement. Add to this skyrocketing prices of
land (if not already parcelled by their parents), discriminated against by the
influx of returning residents (“enriched” from a fat cat-sponsored persistent depreciation of our
Rupee against foreign currencies that is supported by prohibitive interest rates
for loans – a reflection of market mistrust in the soundness of the Rupee
requiring higher premium to compensate for higher risks and unchecked
cartelisation), foreigners (mostly lured by “défiscalisation”), and supply severely constrained by
large and privileged land owners. Still worse, our statistics on house
ownership are grossly misleading as they merely show the remainder of those
households who do not pay rent.
Should the situation not improve
dramatically, this generation of young adults will be the last one to be able
to build their own houses. The remainder who still manages to own a plot of
land are overwhelmed by loans that hardly leave any disposable income. A word
of caution here: it's only houses, not habitats – habitats imply carefully
planned supporting networks of social, economic and cultural activity around
houses to ensure sustainable regeneration of the area over time. As well as
efficient transportation and infrastructure – nothing is implemented in
isolation. Buying social peace has never been easier nor less expensive,
which is in effect a virtuous circle of sorts.
Yes,
we can! But...
…it
takes courage – and since
there are only 1.2 million of Mauritians over 2,040 km2 (5
times less populated than Singapore but with 3 times more land than
them...), it cannot cost much (neither in terms of time nor resources) to see
meaningful progress, which, if managed thoughtfully, could take a time period
short enough to ensure that the outgoing government gets re-elected – the key
is to be resolute in converting land into production of meaningful human
capital instead of mere State-subsidised rent-seeking.
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