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Land Must Fetch Fair Value Says Kellman

Submitted by Anthony Davis Exactly three weeks after offering residents lots at $5 per square foot to help solve the ‘housing problems and the squatting problems in the country’, Minister of Housing and Lands Denis Kellman has warned that the days of Government selling cheap land were over – BARBADOS TODAY dated March 18, 2016…

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Submitted by Anthony Davis

compulsory acquisition of Brighton land 001Exactly three weeks after offering residents lots at $5 per square foot to help solve the ‘housing problems and the squatting problems in the country’, Minister of Housing and Lands Denis Kellman has warned that the days of Government selling cheap land were over – BARBADOS TODAY dated March 18, 2016

Pray tell me, Minister Kellman, were you not one of the persons who signed off on the sale of Government land to Cahill Energy at 6 cents per acre?

How much did that land cost Government, Mr. Kellman?

Is that not, in your opinion, cheap land?

I think that it’s the cheapest land since the whites robbed the Native Americans of their land during the settlement of North America!

Did the ex-con Dean Del Mastro get the same sweetheart deal as Clare Cowan for the land he bought to set up a solar energy plant, which will certainly put some homegrown businesses out of work, when he was out on bail?

Is the plan to build the $26 million solar manufacturing plant and solar farm in Barbados still scheduled to be completed in April 2016?

What’s this “hub of renewable energy” Dean Del Mastro is talking about?

What’s the “centre of excellence” in Barbados all about?

Will they still be hiring 140 employees by the time the plant opens on April 6, and 460 by the third year of operation?

If you can sell it at such a price to Clare Cowan who doesn’t even know one end of a gasification plant from the other,  why can’t the taxpayers of this country expect cheap Government land?

You can sell it cheaply to some Jenny-come-lately but not to the taxpayers who also have to pay you?

That is nothing but a load of gobbledygook.

Home drums must beat first!

At least if it’s sold cheaply to the taxpayers it won’t be used for setting up a plant which no other country wants, and which will be spewing toxins into the environment thereby polluting Barbados more than it already is.

Only last month you offered land at $5 per square foot to the squatters.

It didn’t take long for you to renege on what you offered.

That’s very proactive, Mr. Kellman.

This shows how members of this “people-centred Government” operate.

Then someone has the gall to say that there’s too much dependence on Government!

On whom should we depend?

Who collects our money in taxes  on a daily/weekly/monthly basis?

Do we give them to you so that you can give them to people like “Butch” Stewart, Clare Cowan – and the ilk of Dean Del Mastro who was out on bail after spending a night in jail for contravening the Election Canada laws when he flew to Barbados to make a deal with this Government, and which was plastered all over the Canadian newspapers, and from whose businesses the foreign exchange will be flowing out of the country?

“The worst thing is that we live in a contaminated moral environment.” – Vaclav Havel former President of Czechoslovakia

29 responses to “Land Must Fetch Fair Value Says Kellman”

  1. Artax Avatar
    Artax

    @ Anthony Davis

    I wanted to read the article in the March 18, 2016 edition of Barbados Today you referred to before making a response, but, unfortunately, I could not find it.

    However, I don’t want to misconstrue your article, but by your comments, are you IMPLYING that Denis Kellman is essentially saying “land must attract its fair economic value?”

    And if Kellman was indeed making that implication, was he not among the DLP parliamentarians and other critics who vehemently castigated Owen Arthur for making a SIMILAR COMMENT a few years ago?

  2. Sunshine Sunny Shine Avatar
    Sunshine Sunny Shine

    Artax

    That is the same two mouth Dennis Kellman. The DLP’s jester.

  3. David Avatar
    David

    @Artax

    Here is the fuller quote from Kellman. He is playing on cheap versus recovering cost and not fetching highest economic value.

    “Exactly three weeks after offering residents lots at $5 per square foot to help solve the ‘housing problems and the squatting problems in the country’, Minister of Housing and Lands Denis Kellman has warned that the days of Government selling cheap land were over.

    “Explaining that it costs the administration about $100 per square foot to acquire land, Kellman argued that it was only fair for Government to resell at no less than the matching cost.

    “It is clear in Barbados that when Government has to buy the price is high, (but) when Government has to sell, nobody thinks that the Government land has value.

    “There a lot of people who believe that Government should buy land very expensive but when they sell land they must be given at a cheap price. I want to say those days are over,” the minister announced in the House of Assembly as debate continued on the Appropriations Bill 2016.”

    “From the floor of this House I have said people are free to come and apply for some of the 500 lots at $5 per square foot to remove themselves from squatting and own a piece of the rock. Is not that proactive Government?” he asked them.

  4. racehrse Avatar
    racehrse

    What a deal, I think I’ll become a squatter! Government should acquire at the fair market value, and sell for the same. If they acquire at $100 at any given time, that when they sell the market value at the time should be fair market value either up or down in the market. What they should offer is a discounted financing program thru the banking system such as first time home buyers subsidy, down payment assistance, etc. A 50’X 50′ lot @ $100 is $250,000. @ $5 is $12,500. So who makes up the difference, the taxpayer. If you want to take care of the squatters, renovate some vacant government buildings, and house them there.

  5. Frustrated Businessman aka Republic my ass. Avatar
    Frustrated Businessman aka Republic my ass.

    What is even more interesting is the fact that the price of land is determined by demand in the first instance and the cost of infrastructure to the end-user.

    Demand in the first instance is based on the false scarcity created by an inept Town Planning department who actually don’t plan anything. The difficulty is acquiring planning permission creates the environment in which bribes can be extorted so that is unlikely to change.

    The cost of infrastructure (roads, power, water) is also falsely inflated by other regulatory demands, private-sector competition keeps the costs as low as possible.

    So land zoned for agriculture might be worth $1 per square foot until planning permission is bought, at which time the price goes up to $4 per square foot. Development costs of around $14 per foot bring us to $18. 9% APR and a three-year turnover rate accounts for $5. Asking price might be $26.

    Of all those costs, the only ones gov’t can avoid are the buying price of $4 (gov’t is the largest land-owner in Bim) and the profit margin so their costs would be $19.

    To sell for $5?? I wonder how well those Kellmanomics work in his Moontown rum shop.

  6. Redfactor101 Avatar
    Redfactor101

    Are we absolutely sure the land was transfered to the Cowan woman .
    If the amigos were stupid enough to transfer the 15+- acres to her she could possibly use it to pay down her outstanding debts????

  7. Well Well & Consequences Avatar
    Well Well & Consequences

    I think that it’s the cheapest land since the whites robbed the Native Americans of their land during the settlement of North America!”

    Ya got thst right, even the tiefing whites bought Manhattan for the equivalent of US $25.

    The documents I saw re the “purchase” of massive parts of Mexico…read Texas, et all, were also “sold” for more…6 cents an acre was beyond evil re Cahill scam in Barbados.

  8. Simple Simon Avatar
    Simple Simon

    The government does not own any land.

    The government holds the land in trust for the people/citizens/taxpayers of Barbados.

    The truth is every government in every country of the world has to provide social assistance, including assistance with housing/land for some of its population.

    It is amazing that people talk about market value when it comes to selling land, but are silent about market value when it comes to wages.

    Truthfully are any of our Cabinet Ministers (or those in the previous BLP Cabinets) worth their $20,000 salaries?

    And how do we know that they are worth this? How do we determine the true market value of a politician?

  9. Simple Simon Avatar
    Simple Simon

    Is Mr. Kellman trying to say that a labourer or a maid who is earning $250 per week should be required to pay the same to purchase land as a politician who is earning $5,000 per week.

  10. Simple Simon Avatar
    Simple Simon

    Owen Arthur was wrong on this.
    Dennis Kellman is wrong on this.

  11. Simple Simon Avatar
    Simple Simon

    How soon we forget where we have all come from.

    It was only 3 or 4 generations ago (that is before 1937) that our foreparents were walking barefoot, and sleeping on crocus bags.

    Working hard, hard, hard for some unjust people, but earning very very small wages.

  12. Simple Simon Avatar
    Simple Simon

    We have all in this Barbados, this Caribbean, this new world EARNED the right to live on this land.

  13. Violet C Beckles Avatar
    Violet C Beckles

    How much did that land cost Government, Mr. Kellman?@@@

    You all have bad jokes , for none seem to learn as yet,
    The Government do not own any land , Most land they looking to sell belong to Beatrice Henry and Violet Beckles, ,

    Kellman is another up and coming crook, Its not about free land or low price land,

    Ask him who he paid for the land, They ate taking turn Laundering the land as Samantha Cummins did at NHC and the Michael Lastclass ,Who also laundering land in white hands up are COVERLY .

    IF THE GOVERNMENT HAVE OR OWN LAND THEY TO SELL FOR $2.50 BDS FOR THE VAT AT 15 % NOW AT 18% ID TO PAY FOR THE LAND , TO MOVE THE PEOPLE FROM LAND RENT TO THE LAND TAX ROLL.

    THIS MAN IS A CROOK , WE TOLD HIM ON FACE BOOK TO CHECK OUT DEEDS BEFORE HE PLAY THE FOOL, ALL OF BARBADOS AT SOME POINT WAS 491 BUSINESS DEALING IN PLANTATIONS,

    NOW THEY ONLY LISTING 396 A MASONS NUMBER,

    So when they government have to proof they bought land or have CLEAR TITLE DEEDS ,, we do, the government now want to work with GOOD TITLE deeds they made up , which no lawful or legal bank will or should give loans for land the DBLP thief , unless they use a fraud bank like First Caribbean, Sir Richard and Sir Cow,

    All people who want a CLEAR TITLE deeds , need to wait till next elections , hold your money and we can get them land to buy or rent ,

    People can still build on the land with the owner permission,
    Do not be fooled,by these international criminals ,

  14. Well Well & Consequences Avatar
    Well Well & Consequences

    Violet….their nastiness is now a conversation piece, stealing land from the poor to give to their bribers, now talking crap about land value….beasts on two feet.

  15. Tron Avatar
    Tron

    @Simple Simon
    “Working hard, hard, hard for some unjust people, but earning very very small wages.”

    Sounds like 2016, if you compare the situation in Bim since 2008 and the progress in other economies around the globe. Paying 100 % more for food and 200 % more for cars than Australia, Norway or Switzerland, but earning only 20 %.

    Kill NHC and give poor citizens a big tax discount to finance housing. That would be cheaper than NHC running up debts half a billion BBD. We had enough government departments and state entities running up debts for nothing.

    Just look at Coverley.

  16. Violet C Beckles Avatar
    Violet C Beckles

    Well Well , if the people will just study the roots of all land dealings , they will see and know the government dealing in smoke and greed and the need of the people to own land the right way, The DBLP can not show what is needed if the people had to go to a bank to get a loan , They are dealing with the good word of a government that is not good not true, right not lawful and not even legal. The court or true court is not to approve fraud. More pain will come when the people money is taken and they still can not find the history for the land, But can find all other records to tell England they want money for slavery? Where are the records, and stop playing games with People, They better wake up when their deeds can not be held for loans,

  17. Tron Avatar
    Tron

    Just look at Coverley, and you know where the taxpayer´s money goes:

    “We are canadian tourist here who were in the market to buy not 1 but mabe 2 vacation homes at coverly but the female consultant who look like she was too busy doing her nails and too busy starring at herself in the mirror mabe too over zealous that she had a job in an office with a/c greeted us at the door to this empty office and before we could say hello it was like “hello sorry its only 2 of us here (in an empty office) and i’m going to lunch check out our website or try calling agin” like WTF No wonder there are no sales.”

    1) Why does NHC need to promote tourism? Go to Altman.
    2) Poor work ethic as usual.

    Source: Barbados Today

  18. Simple Simon Avatar
    Simple Simon

    What do the traditional and modern gentry want poor people to do?

    Some Bajans will NEVER be able to buy land at $30 per square foot, nor at $10, nor at $5, unless that is employers wish to pay $20 per hour, or $30 or $40 or more.

    Without high wages for everybody (and we know that that will NEVER happen) then governments in Barbados everywhere else will ALWAYS have to intervene in the free market.

    Unless that is we are foolish enough to believe that we can sleep peacefully at nights in our beds while a large proportion of the population sleeps outdoors.

    These are our choices civil/social unrest or government intervention in the free market.

    The free market ain’t Holy Writ, and human beings are not all good.

    We need to stop behaving as though the kingdom of heaven has arrived.

    It hasn’t.

  19. pieter pieper Avatar
    pieter pieper

    Some people believe that the land should be leased (???) to a developer and developed, a la Villages-at-Coverley, so that people may get a chance to ‘own a piece uh de rock’.
    There are some who argue that $5 per sq.ft is too much, that ” we bin livin’ pun all we life an’ lookin’ afta it so we deserve it !” There are also others who posit that “de guvm’nt ain doin’ a damn ting wid it so why cahn we get it to nuse it ?”Then there are some, a tad more rational and responsible, who argue that we are long past the time and need ‘to build up…apartment,condominium,flats…in the air’, especially on ‘government-owned land. We must consider conserving land for food production, increasing our foreign reserves, making more money available for real essentials ! Was it not the late Professor Sir Arthur Lewis who took the position that agricultural development is the sine qua non of economic development, especially of small nations ?

  20. Simple Simon Avatar
    Simple Simon

    Is it is all right for Cabinet Ministers who set their on salaries at $17,000 per month to talk about market value for land for other people?

    Do these people stand in front of a mirror and listen to themselves BEFORE they open their mouths in public?

  21. Simple Simon Avatar
    Simple Simon

    @pieter pieper March 25, 2016 at 2:37 PM “we are long past the time and need ‘to build up…apartment,condominium,flats…in the air.”

    So how much is the optimum amount of outdoor playing space for a 3 year old girl?

    or a 13 year old boy?

    Do you know?

    Does anybody know?

  22. pieter pieper Avatar
    pieter pieper

    @SS

    Surely the amount of land such buildings occupy is, generally speaking,much less than individual ‘houses’ spread out a la Villages-at-Coverley! Most multi-storey building complexes, for the most part,are therefore able to allow for playgrounds… tennis, basketball courts,…’playing space’ etc…. to accommodate “a 3 year old girl ? or a 13 year old boy ?”. Did anyone consider the “optimum amount of outdoor playing space for a 3 year old girl? or a 13 year old boy” with respect to Villages-at-Coverley ? In an island of limited land area, should we continue ‘building out ‘ and using up agricultural land ? Is playing space more important than growing food which is,mostly imported at tremendous…soon to be prohibitive… cost ? Without food, children won’t be able to play!

  23. pieter pieper Avatar
    pieter pieper

    @ SS

    Cabinet Ministers earn $17,000 per month ( or $204,000 per year) ? Certainly you jest!

  24. Well Well & Consequences Avatar
    Well Well & Consequences

    Pied…those crooks in parliament did not even want to give up 5% of their salary to help the economy, the one Donville Inniss claimed he got bills to pay too, it was only after a huge outcry those selfish, bribe taking beasts agreed to a small salary cut….I bet you they found a way to make up that cut at the taxpayer’s expense…tenfold.

    After giving away land at 6 cents an acre to a white Canadian crook, the pothound Kellman got the nerve to tell born Bajans about land value.

  25. Anthony Davis Avatar
    Anthony Davis

    I also think that we should go the route of the Cayman Islands, i.e. only sell land to citizens and permanent residents, and lease the land to foreigners. I don’t see why total strangers – some of whom could be the biggest bigots in the world, but would want to live here in their fortresses only using our people for mean tasks – should be able to buy up our land just because they have the money.

  26. balance Avatar
    balance

    “We must consider conserving land for food production”

    What foods do you plan to grow ?

  27. Artax Avatar
    Artax

    Anthony Davis March 28, 2016 at 6:23 AM #

    “I also think that we should go the route of the Cayman Islands, i.e. only sell land to citizens and permanent residents, and lease the land to foreigners. I don’t see why total strangers – some of whom could be the biggest bigots in the world, but would want to live here in their fortresses only using our people for mean tasks – should be able to buy up our land just because they have the money.”

    @ Anthony Davis

    Whenever these types of issues are raised or articulated many people often shout “xenophobia.”

    However, I agree with above comments. Those foreign bigots, as you described them, often seek to purchase beach front property, which they are successful in achieving, because they always “make an offer Barbadians can’t refuse.” Then they build a wall to guard the property, but more so to keep us off the beach, believing that purchasing the land gives them exclusive rights to privatise the beach.

    Daphne’s Restaurant, owned by Elegant Hotels Group, is located in Payne’s Bay next to “sister hotel” Tamarind Cove. A friend of mine who was a manager at Colony Club Hotel told me the owners wanted to buy the property on which the restaurant is located, but the landlord refused their numerous offers, preferring to lease the land instead.

  28. Artax Avatar
    Artax

    I believe that people should have not been allowed to occupy NHC units for as long as 20 and 30 years.

    Those NHC units should have been reserved specifically for low income workers who are now starting out in life. They should have been given a lease contract for at least five years with a clause stipulating saving towards owning their own property. Obviously, provisions would be made for the less fortunate.

    As a state agency, the NHC should use its resources to provide LAND or HOUSE and LAND for low, middle and high income workers, formulating AGREEMENTS with banks and mortgage companies to make the QUALIFYING MORTGAGE REQUIREMENTS much LESS STRINGENT for low income workers.

    This process would see people moving from the NHC units to owning their own property, thereby making those units available to other people, who would go through a similar “rotation process.”

    There will be those that will “cry foul” at this suggestion.

    But there are people who occupy those units, build their own homes and subsequently rent them.

    Rather than pay the NHC rent at $500 per month, some tenants prefer to pay a finance company or the bank $1,200 per month for a $200,000 Grand Vitara or Courts for expensive furniture. And they would do all in their power to pay on time to avoid the embarrassment repossession can cause.

    There are those tenants who, although they can afford to pay rent, will not do so, because “it is guv’munt, so I en gaw pay.” If these individuals “transitioned” to their own home, they would definitely pay the bank or pack out.

    Some will say that people can’t afford to buy land, which may be true. But the squatters build and furnish homes on other people’s property.

    Barbadians are not prepared to make sacrifices, since they have become accustomed to successive governments giving everything free. Given our lack of natural resources, this way of life will eventually become unsustainable. Hence, in an effort to solicit votes, each administration has to borrow to maintain the status quo.
    This administration continued the “freeness” by giving tenants, free of cost, the NHC units in which they were residing for over 20 years.

    The NHC is over $500M in debt and Denis Kellman was QUICK to STATE that the DEBT was NOT incurred UNDER the current board.

  29. Violet C Beckles Avatar
    Violet C Beckles

    Artax March 28, 2016 at 8:15 AM #

    I believe that people should have not been allowed to occupy NHC units for as long as 20 and 30 years.@@@

    You have to study the land, you can not study the DBLP ways of fraud to get the picture,
    What you wrote may work if the laws were used and not fraud and greed for votes, People living free on one end is how they get votes, and never own any thing, The people never learned or got the truth from any government, None of the ways or rules will work in any other country on Earth, Only other way land move as bad is WAR, Winner takes and make rules,
    Once you learn the government have no titles , own no land then you will see why its cash, carry, fool people out of their money, Its all the same English Laws where ever the Queen goes, Canada or American, But little England doing land laundering with the best record system in the world is now corrupt by these Bitches, ,
    Let not go by what you feel , hear or think , Go by the law and rules of banking before getting loans in the land of top crooks,
    Only those who dont know may sound good to them , The truth of this Matter , is Worse then Madoff and Standord, by law and Notice all i can do is warn you all over and over again.

    Bernie Madoff 65$ Billion + Sir R. Allen Standford 7$ Billion + Tom Petters 3.7 Billion , Scott Rothstein 1.2 Billion , and Yes some of that Fraud money also end up at the Oval, in Housing , NHC UDC in Barbados so much money laws were pushed aside ,for theses white crooks and the black crooks made up ACTS to say its all good,Lawyers Lawyers its the FFFFFING lawyers in Barbados, Study before posting, this is why CONS work , Lies is what ever make you feel good about your money being taken,Prime Minister and AG , MIa and Owen in this,Also ,

    When its hit you and you GET it, It will be like the 2nd coming,DO people just loose their MINDS when they land in Barbados or Greed just take over their Nature?

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