About 40 years ago, a Leiloro Lokoloko from the National Housing Commission used to write articles about the purpose and activities of the National Housing Commission and how it could help Papua New Guineans buy or rent a house.
The articles were very interesting and you can learn so much about how the NHC, its primary purpose and how it helped Papua New Guineans in buying or renting.
This is a summarised version of one of the articles.
The prime aim of the NHC when it was created was to help many Papua New Guineans with housing. It did this in a number of ways:
- Building houses in rural and urban areas and making them available for rental or sale.
- Improving existing houses.
- Encouraged Papua New Guineans to build their own houses.
In the case of the third point above, the NHC had a “Self Help” Scheme.
How did this work?
A serviced block of land was allocated to anyone earning under K25 per week who wanted to build a house.
The NHC gave further assistance such as building materials through loans and grants as well as the provision of technical advice and assistance.
The NHC also promoted and helped local industry contractors by the use of local contractors and local building materials.
Lokoloko explained how one could go about obtaining a NHC rental house for his/her family.
This was the process:
- Go to the NHC Head Office at Tokarara and complete an application form.
- A NHC staff member to interview you to find out, amongst other things, your family size, your income, present residence etc.
- You pay an application fee of K6 and are issued an Allocation Number.
- Check each Friday’s Post-Courier for any houses advertised and if you spot a house that you like and the rate is 1/5th of your fortnightly salary, then you would be eligible for an inspection of that house with NHC.
- Should an inspection and application be successful, the applicant’s name is advertised in the Post Courier. A security bond of K20 is then payable if the house is low-covenant or K30 for a high-covenant house. These payments would be, subject to no damages being done while in occupation, refunded when you vacate.
- An additional rental amount of 4 weeks was to be paid before occupation.
Unsuccessful applicants still had the opportunity to re-apply.
Those lucky successful applicants also receive a booklet title “Information for Tenants” which outlined the tenants responsibilities and other necessary rental information.