Attorney-General Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum
encouraged those present at the post-budget discussion; “Fiji’s Economic Recovery Plan” to ‘think outside the box’.
Encouraging Fijians to not wait for too long before owning a home, the Minister for Economy, while speaking at the discussion organised by the Fiji Chamber of Commerce and Industry on 25 July 2020, made this remark about home-ownership which in Fiji is extremely low.
“Many people have that psychology to buy a house once they are in their 30’s or 40’s. We want the young people of Fiji to be able to buy their homes much quicker,” he said.
“The Reserve Bank of Fiji is lending at least 1 per cent on housing loans to commercial banks who should then lend at least five per cent of those monies. So we have banks that are lending at 4.2 and 4.3 per cent for home loans, this is for home buyers.”
Owning a home under strata title can also be possible instead of building a home on a block of land.
This means owning a home in an apartment building instead of buying land and building a house on it.
“Owning your first home can be under strata title – you can have an apartment which is your own, in the same way that you would have a home on a block of land. The core structure for strata titling is a lot more attractive because under one roof, you have three floors, you share the plumbing services etc.”
Attractive packages such as tax exemption on profits made from the sale of subdivided land have also been made available for Fijians.
“The third aspect is the liability of the lots – any company or any business that subdivides land, beginning from a million dollars or less, the ‘x’ number of benefits, you also lend any profits. A profit that you make from the sale from the subdivision of those lots are tax-free or tax exempted. The larger the project the longer tax holidays you get, you also get exemption on the profits you make from it,” the A-G said.
The post-budget discussion was attended by members of the private sector and many present welcomed the 2020-2021 National Budget that was announced on 17 July 2020.
