 Islands Business News
Evan Wasuka
In the Solomon Islands capital of Honiara, land is a valuable and increasingly scarce commodity.
After three years of ethnic conflict that grounded the local economy to a halt, the 2003 intervention of the Australian-led Regional Assistance Mission (RAMSI) resulted in the resurgence of the Solomon Islands economy.The booming economy has sparked increased developments and economic activities including massive growths in the housing and land sectors.
The demand for suitable land for commercial and residential projects has reached unprecedented levels with more residents in Honiara hunting for vacant land.The demand is evident; a visit to the ministry of lands any day of the week will see crowds scouring the ministry’s maps for vacant land or to transfer land titles. The situation has reached a stage where individuals are being hired to sit through the lines of bureaucracy to fill forms for people wanting to register or buy land.But the plain truth is that there is not enough land in Honiara to meet the demand and the sale of land titles has become increasingly over priced. In some cases, it has become all too common—land leased from the state at S$1000 or less are now being re-sold at exorbitant prices. 
As part of its land reform programme, the lands ministry is pushing ahead with a policy aimed at reducing price speculation.Lands Minister Reverend Leslie Boseto says a new policy—still on the drawing board—will see people who lease government land give them back to the ministry before they are sold. Part of the land grab has been caused by the booming Honiara real estate market which is on a historical high. The boom has been brought about by demand for residential properties by the presence of expatriates serving under RAMSI.
REAL ESTATE BOOM
As Honiara rentals skyrocket, property owners and wannabe property owners are rushing to buy up more land to develop residential properties. Banks are now flooded with requests for loans to buy land and construct homes to be rented out.Valuation is a big business in Honiara with firms and individuals riding on the real estate boom. As a result, Solomon Islanders are finding it hard to live and rent in their capital city.Conflicting claims by landowners on the outskirts of Honiara near the international airport, the city’s prime area for development, has forced the government to put a caveat on the area to prevent further purchases.
Commerce Minister Peter Shannel told Parliament the government was not willing to talk to either of the claimants until the ownership issue was settled.On the opposite side of town, the story is much the same.
The lands ministry has stepped in to block further land purchases in the city’s hinterland area. Lands under-secretary, Eric Gorapava says what Honiara is experiencing is urbanisation and the concern, he says, is the rate at which it is occurring.“We are feeling the pinch now because we are seeing the reality of urbanisation,” says Gorapava.
He says for too long the country’s citizens have flocked to Honiara under the misconception that it is a safe haven.“Land in Honiara can no longer absorb the population increases and developments that are taking place,” he said.The influx of new settlers has forced current and past governments to issue temporary occupation licences for the disadvantaged to settle on the fringes of Honiara’s city boundaries. It has also granted fixed term titles in one pilot area on the city boundary. But landowners in Guadalcanal Province have expressed concern at the expanding size of the settlements.Gorapava says the issue can only be resolved once developments take place in the rural areas.
“These scenarios are what prompted the current government to seriously address the causes of urbanisation and work on a long-term plan to create economic opportunities in rural Solomon Islands,” said Gorapava.Part of the government’s heavily talked about bottom up policy includes plans for a new rural credit scheme and other downstreaming efforts to involve rural entrepreneurs and spur economic development in the rural areas.
Better use of land through reform in the rural areas could hold the key to boosting economic activities in the provinces.“Customary land which makes up 87.3 percent of the total land area in the Solomon Islands has always been neglected because it is too sensitive,” said Gorapava.Land reform is such an important component of the bottom up approach, but Gorapava warns it will not work if people in the rural areas do not support it. |
BENJAMIN DISRAELI (1804-1881)
Jacinta Moli from Central Malaita representing Solomon Islands in Powerlifting during the Commonwealth Games
