Madam Speaker, social housing units are reserved for applicants with a monthly household income of up to Rs48,000. However, there are applicants who, though eligible for a housing unit, do not have the repayment capacity, or in many cases due to unfavourable MCIB reports, are unable to secure a loan from financial institutions, or cannot benefit from mortgage facilities from the NHDC. So as not to debar these applicants from owning a housing unit, since November 2025, the NHDC has, following Government approval, introduced a new financing scheme based on the Rent-to-Own mechanism to cater for such type of beneficiaries. The Rent-to-Own Scheme, basically, enables those beneficiaries to rent a housing unit for an initial period of five years with the right to exercise a purchase option anytime. With regard to part (a) of the question, the NHDC is, at present, according to the information given to me at my Ministry, not in a position to provide the exact number of eligible applicants, as the assessment of beneficiaries is still in progress. So, I am personally not very happy not to give information of that nature because I have the information, Madam Speaker. I have the information as at the 18th of March 2026 as to how many people on “Rent-to-Own” are being considered. So, allow me to give it. Because you see, it’s not in the habit of previous governments to be transparent and I love the idea of being transparent. So, in spite of what I am told here, I will give the information and it is as follows – • For Olivia, there are 212 units, as at 18 March for loan, mortgage credit facility and the evaluation of mortgage for rent or rent-to-own by NHDC – 70 are under evaluation; • For Grand Bel Air – 33 being evaluated; • For Valetta – 0; • For Mare D’Albert – 14; • For Henrietta 3 – 0; • For Malherbes – 14; • For Pointe aux Piments –33; • For Reunion Maurel – 26. So, out of the 1,264 units in those places I made mention, there are 190 that are being evaluated for mortgage/rent to own. So, with regard to part (b), there are no specific number of housing units that are earmarked for rent-to-own. In fact, it is for applicants who are de facto eligible but have not been able to secure a loan from lending institutions. It is those who will have then the choice to opt for this scheme. So, the question of the respective location and expected delivery date does not arise at this point in time. I would like to add that this is, – and I am very proud of this particular scheme, I must admit, this Rent-to-Own Scheme, I am personally very proud of it because I came up with the idea and I am thankful to all my colleagues in Cabinet for having supported this idea and approved this scheme. Some people like to pretend as though that they had that idea but then again, I mean we have a lot of pretenders around. Let them be pretenders. Thank you.

It sounds like a song.

It is!

Dr. Aumeer!

Thank you. Can I ask the hon. Minister whether his Ministry have any special priority scheme for those who have lost their property overnight due to natural calamities, particularly if they fall in the category of very low income or even on the list of the NEF? Thank you.

In fact, I turn around here and no pun intended, I turned to my left and I see my good friend the hon. Minister Subron. In fact, it concerns several Ministries who work together and as we speak the whole idea is – do we have a housing bank or a stock of houses that we can send people to? And the answer is very simple – no, we don’t. So, what happens is that we have to look around and look for those houses, that’s why we have come up with, there is another question that the hon. Anquetil had put to me here but very rapidly, the maison de transition – this is what I have come up with and I have already informed Cabinet about that only two weeks back. We are going to work together with the hon. Ministers, both Subron and Madam Navarre-Marie. Why? Because situations like this, we will have to find a solution, it will be the maison de transition. So, I hope that very quickly we will be able to come up with solutions of this nature. The second aspect, allow me to say that, there are many government buildings that are left and unused. You see? So, in the recent past, many Ministers liked to hold on to properties that vested with their Ministry and don’t let it go. But this is not the case with this Government. In this Government, it is clear; it is a team that is working and that team has decided to help one another out. When there are government buildings that are left unused and unutilised, how we can put it to the use of the people, convert into maison d’urgence, maison de transition, used for people who urgently need it under the several Ministries. This is how we work together. So, for those reasons, I must say that the outlook is very good. The outlook is positive because those are issues that were never addressed in the past and it will be addressed now. Thank you.

You are okay Dr.? Mr Ramkalawon!

Hon. Minister, according to this scheme, do you have any fast track for women who have been victims of domestic violence or single mothers or financially in difficulties?

As I have said, in the hardship criteria, we give priority to single mothers. I underline the fact that they are mothers. What it entails is that they have children and those children have to be catered for, they have to be cared for. My colleagues the hon. Minister, Ms Navarre-Marie, and the hon. Minster of Social Security, Mr Subron, both of them are working closely with us. We are working together in order to address those urgent issues. So, yes, they are within the criteria. I also had someone who said: why am I giving priority or why are we giving priority to single mothers? In fact, it’s not a question of being priority or not, it is showing that we have a heart and, in this side, we have a heart. Thank you.

Les enfants d’abords! Okay I think now we move on to Dr. Ms Daureeawo! RESIDENTIAL CARE HOMES – REGISTRATION, INSPECTIONS & POLICY FRAMEWORK