wish them we'll in this endeavor,sounds like a step in the right direction

You mean there is still money left in the pension fund after NG and Vincho?

Good step in the right direction. Lets all hope they put in an independent oversight body that will keep some piggy little hands from lining their pockets and the people that sign up for the houses don't just go do the old scams they have time and time again..

I would like to buy a few of those low income homes for my self. How much do I need to put down and what are the payments.


Many Dominican wives (mothers) and children all over the island need a place to call home. This is great.

Dominican math again....

Lets look at the numbers presented...$513 million divided by 8196 ( why did they not round it off to 8200?) works out to a price of $2,46 million pesos a building. How do we get a range from 700,000 to 2.3 mil if the average is 2.46 mil????

A maximum 6,000 peso payment? At 1% interest over 40 years this would work out...but where in this country of 12% new car loans and 82% credit card rates does one find money for 1%???

Just my thoughts and I could be totally wrong...please correct me if I am!

Just the same. a much needed project and one that I hope follows through/

and exactly what poor has 700,000 to pay for a house? not to mention RD$2.3 million?

Poor = the people that have no show jobs and drug dealers that will rent the apt to the poor mistress and drug mules from san Francisco. This country is a joke.

says PuntaCanaMike

Written by: PuntaCanaMike, 28 Sep 2012 7:00 PM
From: Dominican Republic
Dominican math again....

Lets look at the numbers presented...$513 million divided by 8196 ( why did they not round it off to 8200?) works out to a price of $2,46 million pesos a building. How do we get a range from 700,000 to 2.3 mil if the average is 2.46 mil????

A maximum 6,000 peso payment? At 1% interest over 40 years this would work out...but where in this country of 12% new car loans and 82% credit card rates does one find money for 1%???

now you understand why education is not a priority? what would happen if the average local could calculate things the way you just did? maybe they would become inquisitive, and we cannot have that, can we?

I would guess the reason they say 8196 is that the public works minister may get 4 houses.

There is your 8200.

The people who need them will never live in them.

They are given to relatives that resell them.

How do I get on the list of approved contractors?

years ago i brought 20 new bikes for the upcoming xmas season.
me and my friends went to puerto plata to give these bikes out for the very poor kids in this area.
the well know puerto plata police u know the ones with morals and the ones that love their jobs protecting the citizens of puerto plata, well these same guys keep the poor kids away and guess what? plenty of rich kids show up to claim the bikes. merry xmas to all.
choo choo train.
all aboard. {good question before. where are the poor going to get the $700,000 pesos?}

the people who need them will never live in them.

they are given to relatives that resell them.

this comment a home run? guess history forces folks to have thoughts like these.
free bikes free homes in the dr? the land where the low-life government guys steal every thing they can get their hands on. instead of helping their own people they rob them.
one thing i do wonder about is how the hell in the world do these govenrment guys have the time to rob so much? when they are spending so much time with their 12-15y old girlfriends?
choo choo train.
all aboard.

free homes? a govenment where the leaders have 11-15y old girlfriends, a country where their is no education, where millions of people spend 1/2 their lifes living in the dark, where the rich treat their own as "slaves".

free homes?......
have to run now i need to catch the choo choo train and go to the blue mall and have some great dominican salami.
all aboard.

Thank God for Dread an his " Mágic 8 Ball "

dreamkiller , maybe you can somehow tap into the funds, to raise money to help Mr Brimm pay for his legal defense.

Guys :
Who ever thinks this is for the benefits of the poor is crazy !This is all about where could the builders find money available to build low quality housing,for the so call poor,so the pension funds could put out those millions at their disposal.
Pension funds are not there to help the poor,to start with.Those funds are there to be invested on good return to make money to keep the pension healthy.Who ever thinks the pension funds like in every country including the USA is going to let the States borrow money so they could build projects to house section 8?Least still at 1%per annum when they could get for the same investments including credit cards at 82% and a car dealership at 12%. See what i mean by a country w/o brains ?Either the gvt thinks they are dealing with imbesiles and gaulable citizens or
down right they want to steal the money there is in the pension funds.I WOULDN'T LET THEM COME NEAR IT !The contractors want to take advantage of cheap HAITIAN labor !

Mr Rancier, i have one word for that posting...BRILLIANT. why make 1% on money, when you can lend it at 20%?

Dr Dreadlocks:
I was supprise at you, been an economist did not bring this about. My country men have been shafted so many times that once more they wouldn't know the diference. Again common sence
pays a big roll besides education and to be astute which they are.

I could see those US$513 millions invested in the so needed Gas Power Plants to provide KWHR
at low rates, to make money from,instead of letting outsiders provide electricity at exorbitant prices
and would be there for the next 100 yrs infrastructure. At the same time import natural gas from the Lesser Antilles,by so doing would create bi-latteral commerce among ourselves so as to brake away with the unilatteral commercial agreements such as with Mexico and their cellular phone system business.In return what do we sell Mexico?nothing,We sell Germany more at least they buy our Bannanas US$50 millions per year and climbing.

We should consume & import from those that buy from us so as to create resiprocal commerce!

Mr Rancier, sometimes i see things, but i stay quiet, because some people are really thin skinned, and, when you raise these questions, they call you a hater.

yes, we allow Carlos Slim what is a virtual monopoly in the telecom business, and we buy classroom furniture from Mexico. what do they buy from us? i cannot think of anything, so maybe someone could tell me. someone could also tell me why we buy desks and chairs from Mexico, when the Cibao has so many craftsman woodworkers.

Good post Mr Rancier.. I find it very hard to believe that with out an outside oversight group that this money will just vanish and those who's money it is will get nothing from it... and 1% return you just know someone is dancing to the bank...

at 1% return, you can borrow enough money to build 100 houses, build 50, and lend the rest of the money out at 15%, and make a fortune. yes, stillhere, someone is laughing all the way to the bank. the politicos, and the jeepeta dealers.

Don't forget their girlfriends and watch dealers... they love their over priced gold bracelet that tells the time..

absolutely correct. you have to put on a good show. a nice, expensive ring is also a must. for daytime wear, a briefcase is always nice. empty, of course.

Dr Dreadlocks:
Why do they still refer to Santo Domingo when they say DR. Are they two diferent countries within
one ?
You could bet all those houses to be built from the pension funds would all be at the Capital SD.national district as if they were the only costributors to the pension funds.

You were right when you mentioned about those furnitures bought from Mexico 2 yrs ago having so many DR crafmen. You know there was major kick back for that to happen.Again absence of representation as well as of labor unions Mexico will not allow that to happen if it was the other way around.
Between Carlos Slim and the Mexican movie makers with their cheap Mexican Novelas "you see one you have seen them all"and Brazil on the other end HW construction, Metro & obsolite ww2 war planes at the price of modern jet fighters US$10 mns @. if they don't get the ordenance that
comes with the plane, as well as kerozene to fly ,the planes are as good as seating ducks.$$$
for education instead!

ALL that thanks to the Clown that has already held office for 12 years!

just a touch more math
average price pr unit us $62,590 @ 1500 sg.ft
41.73 us dollars per sq.ft.
sound to me someone is making some big money here.
or am i wrong again?????? this is not housing for the poor!!!!

This is a joke, do some math - US$62,000+ per house for "low-income housing"? That must be $57,000 for the developers, their buddies, kick-backs, etc, and $5,000 to build the house. And that will build a much better house than most Dominicans live in.
I have a friend who just completed 17 houses in a rather poor barrio in Cabarete, the kind of place the government should be looking at doing themselves. Without the contacts, etc, available to a local developer (he's an American who visits often). They have indoor bathrooms, septic systems and are nicely finished. Cost? About $6,000 each

once all the kick backs, bribes, under the table contracts, over priced government contracted supliers all get their share... yes the building costs $6000 and the rest?? as above...
More of the same... people lining their pockets in while the people that need it get the blunt end of a pointy stick...

They could build all the housing they want with their own capital,Just don't touch the pension fund !