The Government has devoted significant energy towards demonstrating that it is working on behalf of the public, but far less to delivering outcomes that materially change housing realities. As economist Milton Friedman warned: “One of the great mistakes is to judge policies and programmes by their intentions rather than their results.”

MP Christopher Famous recently noted that the Government directly controls only a small share of Bermuda’s housing stock, roughly 1,000 units across public entities, meaning more than 95 per cent of housing sits in private hands.

Government efforts to build and renovate are appreciated by the families and seniors they support, but it cannot build its way out of this crisis. Its responsibility is to influence the private market through legislation, taxation, planning rules, and incentives.

To his credit, Diallo Rabain, the Cabinet Office minister, has taken steps to reduce bureaucratic friction within the Department of Planning by strengthening processing capacity and advancing a competent persons scheme. Building on that progress, the Government should initiate consultations to update and consolidate the Development and Planning Act, the Building Authority Act, and the Bermuda Plan. The objective must be a system that removes structural barriers to development, not one that merely reduces administrative delay.

Likewise, Alexa Lightbourne, the Minister of Home Affairs, deserves credit for undertaking reform of the Landlord and Tenant Act, one of the most significant levers government has to influence the private housing market. The issue, however, is depth. If the objective is to increase rental supply, the legislation must restore confidence for those who control the inventory. Public feedback suggests that while tenant protections are expanded, insufficient attention is given to encouraging long-term rentals.

Protections for landlords and tenants must be paired with the ability to earn a reasonable return, through measures such as waiving land tax for qualifying long-term rental units below a defined ARV threshold. Without this balance, the Act risks improving dispute management while leaving the supply shortage intact.

The Free Democratic Movement’s housing plan outlines additional measures that can be implemented quickly without increasing the burden on taxpayers. These include long-term leases for government-owned properties, allowing them to be rehabilitated at private expense while increasing housing stock, and the creation of a comprehensive housing registry to track availability, vacancy, and underused properties across the market.

Housing costs will not decline until supply exceeds demand. Incremental reform does not change that equation. While Housing Minister Zane DeSilva has proposed a ten-year plan, the FDM put forward a plan in 2024 designed to resolve the crisis in roughly half that time.

Despite strong headline economic numbers and reported budget surpluses, growth is meaningless if people cannot access housing. The solutions have been in the public domain for some time. What remains to be seen is whether there is the political will to apply them at the scale required.

∙ Omar Dill is chairperson of the Free Democratic Movement