No change in banking sector promises heartbreak for potential homeowners

By Deandrea Hamilton and Dana Malcolm 

Editorial Staff

#TurksandCaicos, March 24, 2023 – Following the passing of the Crown Land Amendment Bill; The the Crown Land (Residential Conditional Purchase Lease)(Arrears And Mesne Profit)(Amnesty) Bill and the Housing Policy, the government is hoping that residents will take advantage of the suite of new opportunities to purchase land, but the question of financing looms large.

Upon coming into office, Premier Washington Misick had harsh words for the  banking sector warning them to end the practice of de-risking sectors of the TCI economy; that was  back in 2021.  With the stern observations, the Washington-Misick Administration had promised to take with it to the United Kingdom, that disenfranchising issue in hopes of getting help.  

It was the last we’d heard of it.

At the time, the Premier was widely applauded for speaking out; describing the industry as “lazy” and overly selective.  Misick had said, in the nationally televised press conference,  that the TCI banking sector avoided business relationships with entire sectors because of the potential for risk but at the same time:  “They have cherry-picked operations and operators that generate enough money so that risk is covered.” 

Almost two years have passed and the system that prompted the Premiers’ complaints (which were echoed across the Caribbean) remains unchallenged and worse, unchanged.

The concern was resurrected in parliament during the Crown Land debate; when the Opposition Leader decried the high likelihood of roadblocks as Turks and Caicos Islanders seek out lending institutions to take advantage of the new moratorium (and other) concessions now available to them with the passage of the ???????? and the ???????.

During the process of passing the Crown Land Amendment Ordinance the government was urged by the Opposition and some of their own members to increase the time frame for accepting a housing offer from the Government to more than six months.

However, that request, if carried out, once again shifts the responsibility to a Government already offering a multi-million dollar write-off and permitting the commercial banks to continue to get away with gravely insufficient lending.

Credit Unions are on the table; but there is no timeline given for when  these entities will be established and in a position to broaden the lending landscape.

In an effort to follow up on that grand announcement made in 2021,  where  Washington Misick was seeking UK backing to ‘leverage their tremendous wealth and power’ to improve the sector, Magnetic Media is awaiting response to our questions from the Office of the Premier.