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Thursday, November 13, 2025
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‘No silver bullet cure-all’ for housing shortage woe
‘Don’t push agenda’: Electric vehicle 50% target ‘not feasible’
By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net
• Bahamians be ‘shocked’ by land price appreciation A BAHAMIAN developer yesterday warned “there’s no • Arawak Homes chief, realtor silver bullet that cures all” urge zoning relaxation housing shortage ills while asserting that persons would be “shocked” by how much • Sound warning over any land prices have increased since 2000. Gov’t rental price controls
• Auto dealers urge: ‘Let market set pace’ • Gov’ts earlier market share goals missed • ‘Smokescreen’ fear amid battery concern
Franon Wilson, Arawak Homes president, told Tribune Business he and his executives had found “a huge gap” when they recently obtained back issues of this newspaper and the Nassau Guardian to compare 2024’s vacant New Providence land prices with those from as far back as 2010 and the turn of the century. While the exercise did not involve like-for-like comparisons of the same property, it did show that the price for a 10,000 square foot parcel in Sea Breeze Estates had jumped from $115,000 in 2010 to $150,000 in 2024. While these are different vacant lots, the $35,000 increase
By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net
represents a 30.4 percent increase in 14 years. And the cost of a near10,000 square foot lot “off Carmichael Road” had near-tripled during the first 24 years of the 21st century. While one such property was advertised in the newspapers for $50,000 in 2000, another - slightly smaller at 9,600 square feet but in the same location - was listed in the newspapers for $147,000 last year. “When you look at it, it helps to show what is happening,” Mr Wilson told this newspaper of the raw data assembled by Arawak Homes. “I can tell you it’s significant,”
he added of the vacant land price appreciation over the past two-and-a-half decades. “If you did that exercise you would be shocked. “When you look at how much property has increased in value from 2010 to 2020, if you continued that exercise today, I think there would be an even higher jump, especially in western New Providence; especially there. So it really highlights that when we speak about the challenges of home ownership, a lot of factors have to be considered.
VALUE - See Page B10
FRANON WILSON
D&T Shipping’s claim: “The claimant alleges that it has sustained injury and damage as a result of alleged defective hoses sold by Hose and manufactured by Polyhose. “Hose says that on or about May 2, 2022, a firsttime customer, Ronnie Ledet (Ledet), a resident of Houma, Louisiana, entered the Hose storefront located in Gray, Louisiana, and ordered five
BAHAMIAN auto dealers yesterday warned the Government against “pushing an agenda” that disrupts the industry as they argued that achieving 50 percent electric vehicle by 2025 “just isn’t feasible for us as a country”. BEN ALBURY Ben Albury, the Bahamas Motor Dealers Association’s (BMDA) president, predicted to Tribune Business that new electric vehicle sales will “settle a lot different from what they are aiming for” after the Government pledged to the world in its latest commitments to the climate change fight that they will seize half the market. Combined with hybrid vehicles, which the Government promised will account for 30 percent of all new auto sales in ten years’ time, they and electric vehicles are to account for 80 percent market share or four out of every five deals, but the BMDA chief pointed out that none of the previous forecasts on their uptake “have aligned with reality”. He was backed by his namesake, Fred Albury, the Auto Mall principal, who told this newspaper that the Government must “allow the market to set the pace” on electric vehicle sales and not interfere with the industry’s workings as this would undermine employment and individual dealerships. He argued that the amount of carbon emissions created to extract lithium and other minerals used in electric vehicle batteries is “excessive”, and suggested the promotion
POLLUTION - See Page B6
CLIMATE - See Page B6
MATT SWEETING
Hose fault was 30,000 gallon Exuma oil spill? By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net A BAHAMIAN shipping company embroiled in a 30,000-gallon Exuma oil spill has launched a Supreme Court action against the US supplier and Indian manufacturer of “alleged defective hoses” that caused the pollution. The move by D&T Shipping, whose MT Arabian
vessel was transporting fuel supplied by BISX-listed FOCOL Holdings to Bahamas Power & Light’s (BPL) generation facilities on that island when the spill occurred, was revealed in a November 5, 2025, ruling by Sir Ian Winder. The Chief Justice found that the Gladstone Road-headquartered shipping firm’s service of the Supreme Court legal proceedings on Louisiana-based Hose Source
LLC on January 9, 2024, was defective because key legal documents were missing. However, he extended “the validity” of D&T Shipping’s claim until year-end to give it 56 days - or eight weeks - to properly serve Hose Source with its action and accompanying paperwork. Noting that the Indian manufacturer, Polyhose India (Rubber) Ltd, has not participated in the action thus far, Sir Ian wrote of
Regulator detects 142 breaches by licensees By FAY SIMMONS Tribune Business Reporter jsimmonsl@tribunemedia.net THE Securities Commission has detected 142 breaches committed by its capital markets, investment fund and corporate services provider licensees as a result of on-site inspections conducted in 2025, it was revealed yesterday. Megan Knowles, a senior manager at the Securities Commission, said the regulator has completed 87 on-site inspections for the year-to-date and issued 79 official reports in addition
to recording the supervisory breaches. Speaking at the Bahamas Institute of Chartered Accountants (BICA) Accountant’s Week, Ms Knowles said the top deficiencies noted during the conduct of on-site examinations include a number of issues related to International Obligations (Economic and Ancillary Measures) Act filings and failings with the administrative filing of the Anti-Terrorism Act statement. She also identified other issues including gaps in
SUPERVISE - See Page B7
Bahamas misses ‘passing grade’ over 35% project success rates By ANNELIA NIXON Tribune Business Reporter anixon@tribunemedia.net THE Bahamas’ is failing to obtain “a passing grade” by bringing just 35 percent of proposed public-private partnership (PPP) projects through to fruition, an Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) executive warned yesterday. Christopher Sinckler, strategic advisor to the IDB’s Caribbean country department, told the Bahamas Institute of Chartered Accountants (BICA) accountants’ week conference that the region and The Bahamas are receiving
a “failing grade” over their success in taking projects from the concept stage to the point where they are investable and bankable. “Our rate of penetration is 21 percent and that would be considered a failing grade,” Mr Sinckler said. “In fact, if we look at the statistics per country in the PPP space... On public private partnerships alone, the Caribbean, with the exception of Jamaica, which is at a 53.5 percent success rate of penetration, all of our Caribbean countries that are covered by the IDB have fallen significantly behind.
DEVELOP - See Page B7