The Minister of Samoa Housing Corporation Leatinu'u Wayne So'oialo has pinned his hopes on five new properties launched last week at Moto’otua taking the corporation forward.

Leatinu'u said the S.H.C. was established after Cyclone Ofa and Valelia in 1990 and the corporation was set up to help improve housing and living conditions for low to moderate income-earning individuals and families.

He said through the lending of funding and mortgage individuals and families could build, extend, renovate or purchase land for the purpose of building a home.

The Minister of Works Transport and Infrastructure, Olo Fiti Vaai, cut the ribbon last week to officially open the newly built units.

The S.H.C. also administered housing for rent to the public and since its inception was under the Ministry of Works Transport and Infrastructure – until June of 2013 when Leatinu'u said was transferred over to his Public Enterprises ministerial portfolio. 

Leatinu'u said the biggest challenge facing the S.H.C. was that 90 per cent of the units were in very poor condition, and there was no budgetary allocation to fund maintenance or construct new houses. 

However, he said this did not stop the corporation from carrying out its duties and by 2019 had completed renovating all its units. 

The five units that were opened last week are the first to be built by the corporation since its transfer from the M.W.T.I. according to Leatinu'u.

He added that the completion of the new units are a historical milestone in the corporation’s books and there are also plans to extend the project to the land next to where the new units.

Leatinu'u also credited the hard working staff of the S.H.C. who played key roles behind the eventual opening of the new properties.

The new properties on Centipede Alley at Moto’otua comprise two 2-bedroom units and three 3-bedroom units, which the Minister indicated were previously old units which were not fit for occupancy and had to be demolished and rebuilt.

The project to build the five new properties started in 2021 and concluded last week with the commissioning of the new units. The units' opening has given the area a new lease of life with modern looking designed properties. 

The construction of each unit was given to five different contractors. The cost to build each of the 3-bedroom units was $180,000 while the 2-bedroom units cost $150,000 each to build. The S.H.C. also spent $40,000 to fix and prepare the land for the new properties to be built on without any cash injection from the Government.