Honiara’s housing crisis a ‘silent disaster’: Kuku

Acting Leader of Opposition Hon John Dean Kuku said the housing crisis in Honiara and other urban centers has become a silent disaster. 

The North New Georgia MP said young professionals, nurses, teachers, police officers, public servants, and small business owners are being priced out of decent accommodation.

Hon Kuku raised this during his Budget Speech in Parliament recently.

“Land prices have gone through the roof. Banks are increasingly unwilling to lend to first homebuyers. Many of our people end up in informal settlements, paying rent for very poor conditions, with no security of tenure,” Hon Kuku said.

He said the housing crisis has become business as usual and that the government budget lacks seriousness in addressing this issue.

“There is no serious program in the budget to address this. Customary land recording continues to receive small allocations. That is necessary work, but it is not a housing policy,” he said.

Hon Kuku said there is no affordable housing scheme. 

He adds there is no urban land reform. 

“There is no subsidy or support framework for first home buyers. There is no plan to ensure that indigenous Solomon Islanders are not permanently pushed out of prime urban residential and commercial land by foreign capital,” he said.

Hon Kuku said this is not a problem we can leave to the market while we watch from the side. 

He said it is a structural issue that demands a serious policy response, yet both the 2025 and 2026 budgets continue to ignore it.

[end]

Opposition office statement