Some 2,500 new homes are to be constructed by the State in the Princes Town area to deal with the high demand for housing there, Housing Minister Dr. Keith Rowley says.      

The new development will be constructed on area of land called Fair Field, which is just off Princes Town’s main commercial district.       

Rowley made the comment during Thursdays’ post-Cabinet press conference, as he noted that of the 75,000 applications the Housing Development Corporation receives for public sector housing, 4,475 were from people who live in Princes Town.       

“So if we do this development in Fair Field in the coming fiscal year and onwards, and we establish about 2500 units there, we would be dealing with about 60 percent that expressed demand in the Princes Town area,” he said.         

Rowley said since 1971, the Government had recognized the need to make more land space available for housing in and around the Princes Town area.     

He said the project is now very necessary, given the development of the Princes Town area and the daily congestion of its commercial district.

The Fair field estate, which comprises 510 acres of land, had been assigned to the Agriculture Ministry sometime after 1971, when it then had a tenancies and some agricultural activity.  The estate had been designated for agricultural work.

“It didn’t happen as it was planned but now that we have this major (housing) programme underway, the government has taken the position that we would bring fair Field estate into our new town programme,” Rowley said. 

He said additional lands from another estate are also to be included in the Princes town housing plan.

Rowley said the concept plan for the project involves the use of 160 of the 510 acres at fair field for new housing.