Families let down as Cyclone Marcus exposes errors of yesteryear

THE situation is a tragedy, particularly for those who bought these homes. But things could have been far worse. MATT CUNNINGHAM writes

Qamar and Afrin Syeda and their children Samiul, 4, Sameeha, 5 and Abul,9 who share their home with extended family were scared for their home as it shook during the cyclone. Picture by Patrina Malone

THIS will be hard to believe for people who’ve only lived in Darwin for the past three or four years, but if you go back to the beginning of this decade, one of the biggest issues in this city was the rising cost of housing.

House prices were going through the roof as the promise of a jobs bonanza on the back of the Inpex project had investors buying up at a rate of knots.

Rents skyrocketed as the population grew, leaving many lower-income earners wondering how on earth they would afford a place to live.

As is the case with most problems in the Northern Territory, many people decided this was the government’s fault and urged them to intervene.

And intervene they did. Various schemes were introduced to help lower-income earners access their slice of the great Australian dream in a white-hot housing market.

There was HomeNorth and HomeSmartNT, polices that involved little or no deposit, the government offering to enter shared-equity arrangements, and even some extra cash thrown in to buy some whitegoods.

But with the benefit of hindsight, these policies could only be viewed as a disaster.

It was like throwing petrol on a bushfire.

With more potential buyers the prices continued to rise at a rapid rate, causing further problems.

At one point the NT News did an analysis of all the houses for sale in the weekend property guide and found there wasn’t a single home that fell under the $385,000 price ceiling for these housing schemes.

Part of the government response was to produce cheaper housing.

House and land packages at Palmerston were developed and sold at reduced prices, and only to buyers who met low-income thresholds.

There were queues at open days and ballots to cater for the oversupply of potential buyers. Developers cut corners and did things on the cheap, trying to eke every last dollar of profit out of this once-in-a-generation housing boom.

This week we learned of the potentially deadly consequences of those shortcuts.

As part of the government’s affordable housing program, 18 elevated homes were built in Bellamack.

They looked like a perfect foot-in-the-door for hardworking families who had been otherwise priced out of the market.

An advertorial published in 2011 gave these homes a glowing review.

They were described as “tough” and “affordable”, offering the beautiful breezes of elevated living, with plenty of room downstairs for the kids to play.

But for the people who bought them, they’ve have been nothing but a nightmare.

As the full force of Cyclone Marcus began to hit on Saturday, Afrin Syeda and her young family found themselves huddled in one room, wondering how much longer their home would remain standing.

As the winds increased, the house began to shake.

Eventually they decided it was no longer safe to say, and with Marcus unleashing winds of up to 130km/h, they made a last minute dash to a relative’s house to take shelter.

Others were forced to do the same.

Two years earlier, the residents in these 18 homes had been sent a letter by the developer, Bellamack Ptd Ltd, telling them their houses might not be safe in a cyclone and that they would be reimbursed if they sought shelter in a hotel. No letter was sent this Wet season.

The developer’s parent company, Brierty, has gone broke.

The last contact these residents had with Bellamack Pty Ltd was a letter sent last August.

That letter promised rectification work to fix the homes would begin immediately.

It was the same promise that had been made for two years, and ended with the same outcome; nothing.

Now, both the office number listed on that letter and the mobile phone number of the project manager have been disconnected. The company that built the homes — Titan Homes — says it simply built the houses to the specifications provided by the developer.

The government says it’s trying to put pressure on the developer to fix the homes.

But despite the fact these houses were built as part of a government-backed affordable housing scheme and were signed off by building inspectors, it’s insisting it has no legal responsibility to the homeowners.

Many of these people come from non English-speaking backgrounds, they’ve been bogged down in a mountain of paperwork, engineers’ reports and empty promises.

There’s been talk of a class action, but most don’t have the financial means to fight the matter in court.

And while those responsible pass the buck, these residents are left to live in expensive — and potentially dangerous — lemons.

The situation is a tragedy, particularly for those who bought these homes.

But things could have been far worse.

In the heat of the 2012 election campaign the NT Government announced two new policies to help people buy a home.

My New Home offered loans from TIO of up to $750,000 with no deposit and no lenders mortgage insurance. HomeStart Extra saw the Government offering to purchase up to 50 per cent of a $400,000 home in a shared-equity arrangement with another $15,000 “fee assistance loan” thrown in, meaning the buyer required no savings to get into the market.

Thankfully these schemes were scrapped after the 2012 election.

Otherwise, in Darwin’s “cooling” housing market, we might be in a hell of a lot more trouble than we already are.