The outlines of a genuine solution to Bermuda's housing crisis are, in fact, visible in the documents now in the public domain. The challenge is not a lack of ideas. It is a lack of co-ordinated execution at the required scale and a political culture that has allowed press conferences to substitute for plans, and plans to substitute for outcomes for the better part of the PLP’s governance.

Now I draw together the most credible policy threads from the OBA's position, the Chamber of Commerce's data, and Home's annual report and identify where government alignment makes progress possible and where the absence of political will represents the real barrier.

The most fundamental shift required is on the supply-side. Bermuda must create far more housing stock than it has managed in any recent period. The chamber’s arithmetic is unambiguous. At the current pace of seven new units per month, the housing shortage will not be resolved in any meaningful time frame.

The OBA's preferred mechanism for accelerating supply is a combination of private sector incentives, legislative reform, and smart land use policy. In my March 2026 Royal Gazette column, I outlined a package with four specific elements: Tourism Incentive Act-style tax relief for taller builds within the City of Hamilton; customs duty relief on construction material imports; removal of the foreign currency purchase tax on construction financing; and the creation of mixed-use developments that blend low, medium and high-income units within single buildings.

These are not radical proposals. The customs duty reduction on building materials to 10 per cent was already implemented by the Government in July 2025, demonstrating that when the OBA articulates a practical policy, the Government is capable of adopting it. Extending and deepening those incentives to cover the broader suite of construction financing friction points is a logical next step.

Deregulate construction financing costs

The chamber's research confirms that bank lending constraints are a primary barrier to new construction and that "real incomes have not kept up with the cost of housing" — a challenge the same OBA team documented is a structural feature of modern housing markets in the UK, Canada, and the US, not merely a Bermudian peculiarity.

Where the OBA goes further than current government policy is in arguing for system-level deregulation of construction financing costs, not just a single customs duty adjustment.

The Government's Affordable Housing Strategy 2025–2035, when it finally appears, will reportedly include "modernisation of Bermuda's housing legislation, redevelopment of ageing BHC and BLMC housing, expansion of modular and hybrid construction methods, improved pathways for seniors and persons with disabilities, increased supply of compact units and new mechanisms to support families, young workers, and first-time renters".

On its face, this is an encouraging list and there is genuine alignment with our thinking on several of its elements. We have specifically advocated compact units (studios and one-bedrooms) as the undersupplied segment of the market, particularly given the demographic reality that single-person and single-parent households now make up 44.5 per cent of all households.

The Government's recognition of the need for senior and disability pathways also aligns with both OBA advocacy and the chamber's projection that 36.5 per cent of Bermuda's population will be over 65 by 2040. That demographic trajectory will make today's housing crisis look manageable by comparison if it is not addressed with genuine urgency.

What the strategy must contain, and what we are right to demand, is measurable, time-bound targets with transparent public reporting. Home's annual report frames its own ambition through a similar lens: a single implementation plan, detailed resources and budgets, clear roles across government and non-government agencies, and a public microsite for progress reporting. The Plan to End Homelessness states: "Strong governance, accountability and performance pervade the delivery of all outcomes."

Our January 2026 statement put it more bluntly: “A plan alone is not enough; measurable progress, transparency of timelines, and accessibility of housing options must follow." On this specific demand, there is no fundamental disagreement between the OBA, Home and the chamber. The only party yet to make good on it is the Government.

Build housing on government property

The derelict and underused property question is one of the most productive areas of potential convergence. Bermuda has more than 300 derelict properties, both residential and commercial, spread across the island. The chamber's research identified that approximately 3,678 dwellings are effectively unaccounted for in the gap between assessment numbers and occupied households.

We have consistently argued that the single fastest way to increase accessible housing stock is to mobilise private investment in existing government-owned inventory, rather than relying primarily on new-build government projects.

I said most recently in March 2026: “Before we run off and acquire homes already owned by Bermudians to then sell/lease to other Bermudians, let's look again at selling or offering long-term leases over government property and incentivise the private sector to use it for building housing.“

The Government has proposed compulsory acquisition powers as a tool for bringing derelict properties into productive use but our concern is about practical efficacy.

Reform the probate system and rental laws

Bermuda's probate system is, as we have repeatedly noted and the chamber has flagged, a structural bottleneck that prevents many properties from being bought, sold, or renovated for years or even decades after an owner's death.

Home's chief executive has identified the same bottleneck, proposing collaboration with a legal advisory group to support derelict property owners' renovations. Before compulsory acquisition legislation is drafted, Bermuda urgently needs probate reform to resolve inherited properties currently locked in legal limbo, a step that would cost the Government almost nothing, and could bring dozens, if not hundreds of units back to market relatively quickly.

The Landlord-Tenant Act reform is perhaps the most important near-term legislative action available. The chamber's polling indicates strong public support for reform, the Plan to End Homelessness provides detailed recommendations and I have pressed for action in numerous recent parliamentary interventions.

The Act, in its current form, creates perverse incentives. It discourages landlords from maintaining properties at a reasonable standard because they fear being unable to remove tenants, while simultaneously failing to provide tenants with the stability and habitation standards they need. The chamber found evidence of landlords removing properties from rent control by allowing their condition to deteriorate, which is a rational economic response to irrational legislation that punishes investment in the lower end of the market.

The OBA's position and, in substance, the Plan to End Homelessness's position, is that the Act needs comprehensive reform to make it work for both parties: “The rationale is to have appropriate statutory protections for renters and clarity around landlord protections.”

Focus on small units

On the question of population, there is a genuine and unresolved tension. The chamber's case, backed by economic modelling from the Government's Ministry of Economy and Labour, is that Bermuda needs approximately 8,418 additional working-age people to sustain its ageing population.

The OBA has argued that immigration policy, specifically the introduction of term limits under PLP administrations, which the OBA has always opposed, fundamentally altered the housing market by replacing long-term residents who rented larger family homes with a revolving series of short-stay workers competing in the studio, one and two-bedroom segment. The very segment most undersupplied is the one and two-bedroom market. This is not a coincidence but a policy consequence.

Home's annual report offers a vision of what genuine resolution looks like. In particular, converting temporary placements into permanent homes with wraparound support through a national programme to renovate derelict properties while training Bermudians in the trades; expanding landlord partnerships with fair tenant protections, co-operative housing models that include middle-income families and rent-to-own and shared-equity pathways to ownership.

“It would mean codifying prevention and the right to housing so that success is measured not by how many are housed tonight but by how few lose their homes tomorrow.”

These ambitions map closely on to what we have described as the essential elements of a credible housing programme, in particular private-sector activation, legislative reform, a clear plan, and Bermudians-first priorities.

Home's Housing First programme, operating from Black Circle, offers one concrete proof of concept: less than 10 per cent recidivism among participants against a global benchmark of less than 20 per cent. The model works when adequately resourced and properly integrated. In 2025, 88 private-sector landlords partnered with Home, more than double the 45 in 2024. Community trust is buildable. But Home's chief executive is also clear that those 147 cumulative partnerships represent approximately 0.5 per cent of apartment rentals in Bermuda.

"Momentum is not the same as transformation."

That sentence could stand as my concluding thought because it applies equally to the Government's press conference-driven narrative of housing progress and to the broader political discourse around an issue that has been identified, analysed, debated, and deferred for nearly three decades.

The data from the chamber, Home, and the Plan to End Homelessness converges on a single conclusion. Bermuda knows what needs to be done. The OBA's agenda of building higher, incentivising private construction, reforming legislation, repurposing government land and holding the Government accountable to a published and time-bound plan is grounded in that evidence. Where the Government is moving in the same direction, that convergence deserves recognition. Where it is moving too slowly, too opaquely, or in the wrong direction entirely, it deserves challenge.

I closed my most recent Royal Gazette column with a line that, stripped of partisan framing, states the fundamental requirement precisely: “We need to reduce red-tape, streamline building and inspection processes and follow a defined plan that deals with emergency requirements, temporary circumstances and long-term issues in our market. Measure twice and cut once.”

That principle of precision, transparency, and accountability is what the evidence demands and what the 1,331 Bermudians identified as homeless and the thousands more at risk, cannot afford to wait any longer for.

• Michael Fahy is the Shadow Housing and Municipalities and Home Affairs Minister and the One Bermuda Alliance MP for Pembroke South West