Fijian families are not able to afford buying a house as the cost of construction is relatively high.
Nadi Chamber of Commerce & Industry president Lawrence Kumar made the remark during an interview at the National Budget 2026-2026 consultation last week.
He said current statistics showed that Fiji was short of 15,000 to 20,000 affordable homes for its citizens.
“The cost of construction in the country is relatively high,” he said.
“This is why we have a lot of families who are still renting out. I’m not saying renting is bad, but the cost of rental is quite high as well.”
Mr Kumar supported the comments made by Nadi resident, Bulou Lele Wilson, who said renting was expensive.
“There needs to be a regulation around it,” Mr Kumar said.
“Even though the Minister of Finance said there’s a rental freeze on, there are property owners who are getting around it.
“They are doing renovations to the property and presenting the cost of improvement — there needs to be a rate of return on it, in order for them to sort of put up the rental.”
He said Government and the private sector needed to look at other options.
“They need to look at ways and how we could provide homes to the citizens of Fiji.
“People want affordable homes and land at affordable prices.
“However, the cost of construction is quite relatively high in the country compared to the whole of the region.
“We need the Government to provide incentives and for private sector companies, investors who can bring in affordable container homes.
“There could be tax incentives around it, and you can make those affordable homes and containers to be zero vat rated and have zero duty on them.
“So once those duties are zero rated and vat is zero rated, people would definitely bring those affordable homes into the country and people would invest in this area.”
