Feature: Cuba sees budding housing boom

[Judi Lynn]

Feature: Cuba sees budding housing boom
English.news.cn 2013-08-13 12:24:56

HAVANA, Aug. 12 (Xinhua) -- Cuba is beginning to experience a housing boom, thanks to government policies which aim to encourage private construction and home improvement.

About 49 percent of all Cuban homes, estimated to number 3.07 million units, are considered to be in poor or just so-so condition, according to a report from the National Housing Institute.

In addition to a sharp deterioration in the state of existing residences, especially in the capital Havana, Cubans struggle with a housing shortage estimated to surpass 600,000 units.

The lack of proper housing has been aggravated by the impact of repeated extreme weather events, including 13 hurricanes that have hit the Caribbean island nation in the past decade, with three of them (Gustav, Ike, Paloma) back to back in the second half of 2008.

The most recent and one of the most devastating hurricanes, Sandy, struck eastern Cuba in October 2012, causing over 7 billion U.S. dollars in material losses, including more than half of all housing in the provinces of Santiago de Cuba, Guantanamo and Holguin.

More:
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/business/2013-08/13/c_132626472.htm

[Socialistlemur]

1. Move from failed communism to capitalism is ongoing

As Cuba migrates from Castro's failed version of communism, the economy seems to be revving up. This is what happened to China. Unfortunately these countries change the economic structure but they remain dictatorships, and abuse workers' rights enormously. Thus the index of inequality in china today is higher than in the USA, they have press censorship, slave camps, a caste system, and quite a few other medieval ills. Therefore what the Cuban government is trying to mount is just a move towards fascism...the new owner class will be the communist party members and their families.