Riviera Maya, Q.R. — While other municipalities are hoping to be included in the affordable housing project, land acquisition has made that difficult. More than 22,000 affordable homes will be built around the state in coming years.
Most of those homes will be constructed in Cancun in the north and Chemuyil in the south, however, places like Bacalar, Felipe Carrillo Puerto and José María Morelos also want in. Starting this year, the Government has committed to an initial building phase of over 5,600 affordable homes for the working class. Infonavit, Conavi, and developers such as Grupo Vivo, Sadasi and Cadu are part of the state’s affordable housing initiative.
According to José Alberto Alonso Ovando, the Secretariat of Sustainable Urban Development (Sedetus), they are currently looking for plots of land for development. The problem is they need a minimum of two hectares, something that has been challenging since land ownership in Bacalar, Felipe Carrillo Puerto and José María Morelos is communal and cannot be used.
“Ejidal land ownership is one of the main obstacles to the program’s progress,” he said. “In Bacalar we haven’t been able to locate sufficient private land. Ejidal land is very complicated. The program can’t be implemented on those plots. The same thing happens in other municipalities,” he explained.
In addition to having an adequate surface area, the properties must have access to basic services such as water, drainage and electricity.
To ensure that these homes are accessible, agreements were signed between the state and the municipalities for the donation of land to Infonavit or the National Housing Commission (Conavi), which will be the entities in charge of construction.
Alonso Ovando explained that there is also a second aspect to the housing model: private developers build the houses, receive payment from Infonavit and then assign them to the program’s beneficiaries.
In the case of Cancun, Grupo Vivo has already been selected to carry out the project. Additionally, companies such as Sadasi and Cadu have expressed interest in participating in future stages of the program.
