The Tribune

By NATARIO McKENZIE

Tribune Business Reporter

nmckenzie@tribunemedia.net

Small Bahamian contractors have been left virtually “paralysed” due to a stagnant housing market, with the sector seeing little trickle down from the larger foreign direct investment (FDI) projects.

Stephen Wrinkle, a former Bahamas Contractors Association (BCA) president, told Tribune Business that with potential homeowners finding it difficult to obtain financing for mortgages, new housing construction projects were “few and far between”.

“Construction is slow, very slow,” he added. “I don’t think that the FDI projects are really trickling down to the local economy very much. The housing sector is extremely flat, and that has virtually paralysed the small contractors.

“Without financing available for mortgages, new construction projects are few and far between. The small man is having a very tough time at the moment.”

Mr Wrinkle said further:  “I don’t know how the problems are going to be resolved in a timely fashion. The housing market creates far more jobs for the local construction business than the bigger FDI resort projects, because there are so many more tradesman involved in each project.

“It really has a very positive impact on the local economy. When the housing market is stagnant, as it is now, it has a very negative effect on the economy.”

Added to that, Mr Wrinkle said commercial construction was also in a slump. “Commercial construction is extremely depressed. You don’t see shopping centres and offices and commercial centres going up; very few,” he said.

Mr Wrinkle added that the impact of VAT, which was implemented on January 1, is being felt by companies across the country.

     “The VAT has had an impact. People are starting to feel it now. Companies are starting to feel it. It will take six to nine months for it to filter through the economy, but it will have an impact,” he said.

“The Government is hanging its hat on the opening of Baha Mar, which is going to create jobs, but we have got more needs than Baha Mar can fix. The entire country has gotten itself into debt levels that can’t be sustained, not only the Government but the general population as well, and that’s reflected in the problems the banks are having.

“We’ve got ourselves into a hole that we just can’t climb out of. I think it will take a tremendous amount of input and insight to change that. I don’t see it happening. I don’t see any movement on that front.”