The House of Assembly today approved the Bermuda Affordable Housing Strategy 2025-35 after a four-hour debate

Zane DeSilva, the Minister of Housing and Municipalities, reminded the House: “Behind every housing statistic is a person, a family or a senior struggling to find a place they can afford to call home.”

He added: “These are not abstract challenges. They are real circumstances affecting people in every parish across Bermuda.”

The strategy would deliver between 950 and 1,350 new homes by 2035. Its first phase began last year.

Mr DeSilva said it included new building projects, redeveloping vacant properties and using alternative construction methods such as precast construction.

He added that nine sites showed “this work is already moving from planning to execution”.

Mr DeSilva criticised Michael Fahy, the Shadow Minister of economy, Labour and Housing, for frequent op-eds in The Royal Gazette questioning the ministry’s efforts.

He accused the shadow minister of glossing over the One Bermuda Alliance’s freezes on housing projects during its administration.

Mr DeSilva said: “He is entitled to write and he is entitled to ask questions — accountability is part of this Honourable House.

“What he is not entitled to do is lecture this government on their delivery while airbrushing the record of the last OBA administration.”

Mr Fahy shot back: “Our job is to review the plans that are put forward, make suggestions where it makes sense to make those suggestions and ask questions to get clarity — and, if we agree, then we vote yes.”

Mr Fahy emphasised he and the rest of the Opposition supported efforts to bring affordable housing — but added the strategy lacked detail and planning.

He pointed to a report from the homelessness charity Home, which noted the number of homeless or at risk had jumped from 555 in 2021 to at least 1,331 in 2025.

These numbers, he said, showed plans were “going in the wrong direction”.

Mr Fahy added that problems such as cost and the size of units had to be considered.

“The crisis is much deeper than housing,” he said. “All of these stats need to be read together.

“It's not enough just to say, we’re amazing because we’re building all these houses. We have to look at the attendant underlying problems that exist.”

Mr DeSilva highlighted that 641 families were now in need of homes.

He called the strategy would be “a living document” that could change, but ultimately served as “a road map forward”.

Mr DeSilva added that, as more affordable housing was built, prices for other homes were likely to fall.

The minister said urban development would come — but first, “let’s get people housed”.

Mr DeSilva added: “We are focused on one thing and one thing only, and that’s getting Bermudians housed — and no amount of noise from the other side of the House is going to stop us.”

Kim Swan, PLP backbencher, said the Government had made a “serious commitment” to address the housing crisis, noting the number of properties sitting derelict because of legal disputes that should be put back into use.

He said: “Some type of a lawyer could take this and maybe make it work, some type of eminent domain for the national interest of the country could be created, the proceeds from any profits that’s derived from the redevelopment of it could be put in trust.”

Linda Smith of the OBA said she was happy to see housing projects moving forward, but said she would have liked to see more urban planning involved to help create communities rather than disparate construction projects.

Alexa Lightbourne, the Minister of Home Affairs, said most Bermudians want to have “a piece of the rock” and the housing crisis left many looking elsewhere.

She said: “We cannot just accept the market price as is.”

She added that “markets don’t raise children and markets do not decide whether to stay or to leave Bermuda”.

Ms Lightbourne also noted her ministry was working to “evolve” the Landlord and Tenant Act to help address the issue.

David Burt, the Premier, recalled receiving a message from a young Bermudian working in international business who was facing the possibility of homelessness, stating that he knew others in the House had received similar messages.

He said a multipronged approach was required to address the challenges to create capacity while new units are being erected, adding that the Government did not wait until the strategy was completed before beginning the work.

Mr Burt said: “The reality is that the strategy recognises that people can be in work, can be working hard and still have a challenge finding housing that they can afford.

“That is the reason why the Deputy Premier has a very long housing list and that’s the reason why he’s been particularly aggressive.”

He suggested that Mr Fahy had essentially argued that the Government was moving too fast.

Mr Burt added: “There was a little pushback because the Deputy Premier wanted to move faster, but the Ministry of Finance took its time to ensure that we were satisfied that there was value for money.”

He added that the housing issue also raised the need for discussion about “belongers” — those found to legally belong to Bermuda — stating: “We are seeing persons becoming property barons who are not Bermudians.

“It is a challenge and is something that we have to deal with.”

Separately, MPs approved a plan to hand over a parcel of government land for low-cost residential development.

The Bermuda Land Management Corporation Amendment Act 2026 will offer a section of the Morgan’s Point site in Southampton to the BLMC.

The handoff, part of the housing strategy, would be used to build Dr Cann Park II with 110 new residential units.