The Tribune

EDITOR, The Tribune.

Our News Bahamas recently interviewed a University of The Bahamas (UB) official who conducted a research study on the cost of living in New Providence and Grand Bahama.

The matter pertained to minimum wage versus livable wage. This is a subject that has come to the fore with rising inflation on food, medicine and fuel and the addition of VAT to breadbasket items and medicine in recent months by the Progressive Liberal Party government.

Based on what the UB official told Our News, one was left with the impression that it is costlier to live in Grand Bahama than in New Providence.

Grand Bahamians would undoubtedly question the findings of this study, especially after the official started off the interview with the claim that peanuts cost $2 in Grand Bahama, while they cost just $1 in New Providence.

For her information, this is untrue. Peanuts in Freeport range between the price of $1 and $1.50. In fact, I purchased a bag of peanuts on February 20 for $1 -- under 24 hours after Our News posted the UB livable wage report on its Facebook page.

If UB cannot get this simple matter regarding the cost of peanuts in Freeport right, what other aspects of its livable wage research can you take at face value?

Another thing, did the research factor in the cost of real estate in Grand Bahama and New Providence, as this greatly impacts one’s standard of living?

One can purchase a plot of land in the safe areas of Freeport and the rest of Grand Bahama for under $10,000.

In upscale areas such as South Bahama, you can find land for under $20,000. In the western and eastern ends of New Providence, property prices can go as high as $250,000 and more -- more than the average mortgage in Freeport.

I saw a property in Bain Town going for $70,000 in one of the dailies. For the majority of Nassauvians, owning a home is a pipe dream.

A Grand Bahamian lady told me that her close relative is paying $1,200 a month for a small one-bedroom efficiency apartment in a safe area of Nassau. This is not an unusual case.

Landlords know that many single women dread the thought of living in the Over-the-Hill communities of Nassau. This coupled with the limited amount of available land is why rent and mortgage prices are inflated in the capital.

In Freeport, people are paying less than $800 monthly for apartments in influential areas of Freeport.

In upscale areas of Nassau, one would be hard-pressed to find apartments for under $1,000.

Regarding food prices, a Nassauvian relative of my wife was shocked after visiting a local grocery store in Freeport.

What shocked her was that the price of a gallon of generic milk and a ten-pound bag of leg quarters was going for less than $5 in this particular store. She told my wife that in Nassau a gallon of milk was going for close to $7. And this was several years ago before the inflation crisis and VAT being added to breadbasket food items.

Over the past weekend, the store in question was selling a gallon of milk for $4.79. While the milk isn’t a name brand like McArthur Dairy, it is still a quality milk.

Admittedly, prices in this store have risen sharply due to the two aforementioned reasons. But compared to what I am seeing in Nassau, they’re still lower than the prices Nassauvians are paying in the food stores.

Consequently, I think it’s a stretch to claim that it is more affordable to live in Nassau than in Grand Bahama. I wish the UB researchers had done their homework on the cost-of-living situation in Grand Bahama in a thorough manner before putting pen to paper.

KEVIN EVANS

Freeport, Grand Bahama.

February 21, 2022.