FORMER Premier and real estate magnate Sir John Swan has given a cautious welcome to Labour & Home Affairs Minister Terry Lister's proposal that international companies should consider teaming up with developers to provide housing for new staff brought in from overseas.

But Sir John believed the proposal was likely to become reality only if the companies were allowed to own the apartments they help to develop. Speaking on Tuesday at the annual meeting of the Bermuda Employers' Council, Mr. Lister had proposed that companies embark on joint ventures with the private or public sector to build new housing stock.

The company would then be able to house its guest workers without affecting the local housing market, recoup its investment from rent and after that the buildings would be owned by the Bermudian developer.

Sir John said he thought that companies would be attracted by such a scheme - provided they had something they could resell at the end of it.

And he suggested that the 60-apartment Atlantis complex that his own company is now developing on Victoria Street in Hamilton would provide an opportunity for the Government to show it was serious about offering apartment ownership as an incentive for international companies to remain in Bermuda.

"Bermuda depends more and more on its international businesses and those businesses depend on a workforce that is going to need more and more non-nationals," said Sir John yesterday.

"We have to bear in mind that we need these people to come in to serve these buinesses to give us the means to keep our standard of living - we enjoy a high standard of healthcare, education, security of home and ability to own equity and property. We cannot take these things for granted."

Sir John said countries such as the United Kingdom and the United States were introducing incentives to lure companies back on shore and that Bermuda needed to respond with its own incentives - such as apartment ownership - to keep companies here.

"I am building 60-plus apartments in one block, half of them two-bedroom and half one-bedroom," said Sir John. "They are intended to be sold to international businesses.

"These apartments will be the $64,000 question. They will be the Government's first examination of offering incentives to international businesses." Foreigners had been allowed to own hotels in Bermuda and allowing foreign companies to own apartments, under certain conditions, would be a step in the right direction to address the island's housing needs, said Sir John.

"We have a housing crisis and it needs to be solved," said the former Premier. "We need to have a plan backed by Government and supported by the private sector.

"We need a well-thought-out plan that offers an incentive to all stakeholders and offers a return on investment that is going to satisfy the landowner, the developer and the purchaser."

Concentrating the building in the city would "take the pressure off the country areas so that people could bring up their families there", added Sir John.

The concept of Mr. Lister's idea was right, but its success depended on how it was implemented. And Sir John said the idea was not new, as a scheme involving companies having apartments on a 21-year lease after which they were returned to the landowner, a scheme tried out more than 20 years ago, had not been sucessful.

Bermuda's economic dependence on international business reinforced the need for a policy that might not have voter appeal.

"We have less than 500 acres of agricultural land and virtually no fishing industry," said Sir John (pictured right). "We are dependent on imports and our dollar reserve would be depleted if we had a drop-off in employment.

"We have to give companies incentives to keep their investments in Bermuda. If we lose these companies we don't have a tourism industry that can support us. That is not doom and gloom. That is cold reality.

"We are at a crossroads. We need to make hard, meaningful decisions that may not be popular, but which will be in the long-term interests of Bermudians, their children and the country. We have to make those decisions without getting caught up in xenophobia and the politics of culture and race."

Shadow Housing Minister Michael Dunkley welcomed Mr. Lister's proposal and said the basic idea was something the United Bermuda Party could support and had proposed before.

"A lot of these companies have developed their own office buildings and I think it would be wise for the Government and international business sector to look at developing accommodation," said Mr. Dunkley.

"That is something we would support and I have supported in the past. The aim has to be that Bermudians get affordable housing. But I think the Government needs to have meetings with the companies rather than just floating the idea."