The island is to get “262 homes within the next 18 months”, Zane DeSilva, the Minister of Housing and Municipalities, has vowed, emphasising the swift completion of precast residences as he pushes ahead with a housing agenda.

Three sites prioritised for “accelerated development” will consist of Bermuda Land Management Corporation properties in Dockyard, in Southampton near Dr Cann Park, and “in and around Tommy Fox Road”, in St David’s.

The three are among 30 publicly owned sites on the island targeted for development. The list does not include Morgan’s Point in Southampton. The three priority sites were among six that the Deputy Premier said had been approved for development.

Mr DeSilva’s remarks revealed a preference when it came to alternative construction methods.

“We’re looking at precast homes, and we’re going to do them quickly,” he said.

“It’s been done before — my contention is it will be done again.”

He added: “That quick, that many. I’m going to stick to my guns and I am holding everybody’s feet to the fire.”

Mr DeSilva noted: “And I know you’ll hold my feet to the fire too.”

The 18-month plan is aimed at “primarily one-bedroom units, with a mix of affordable and attainable homes available for rent and/or sale”. David Burt, the Premier and Minister of Finance, said on Friday that financing in the near term will be provided through local institutions, backed by a government letter of guarantee of up to $90 million.

The nine “transitional modular units” earmarked for Boaz Island in Sandys, which proved a tough sell with some area residents at a town hall meeting in December, “will be here in the next five to six weeks”, Mr DeSilva said in his ministry overview under the 2026-27 Budget.

He said the ministry hoped to break ground at Boaz Island as soon as next week to “start clearing” sites identified for the homes, described as transitional housing.

“We have a team that are visiting the United States and Barbados to talk to manufacturers about the timeline that we need,” he said.

“When they return, which will be on Thursday, I’ll get updated.”

The modular “capsule” units planned for the West End could be the island’s only ones under present plans.

Mr DeSilva said that with the exception of the Boaz Island pilot project, the rapid housing envisaged was “100 per cent precast, at the moment”.

Elsewhere, four Bermuda Housing Corporation projects under way are to deliver 37 affordable housing units, with “the majority online by mid-2026”.

Meanwhile, the “current model will remain in place” for the Bermudiana Beach property in Warwick, where a change-of-use application from tourism to residential was withdrawn at the end of 2025.

On the topic of multistorey housing within Hamilton, Mr DeSilva said the ministry had designs on a site at Ewing Street in the north of the city.

He added: “You’ll hear more about that in the next couple of months, but we certainly have that property in particular earmarked for just that — high-rise affordable housing to rent.”

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• For Mr DeSilva’s remarks in full, see Related Media