april-2018c

30 31 to-moderate-incomeworkers whowould have had difficulty in obtainingmortgages through commer- cial banks; individuals with jobs in tourismand other non-conventional industries where these persons would have a challenge in securing a home.How- ever,in recent years,our market expanded into the middle class persons who still can go to commercial banks.We’ve gone from lowincome tomoderate income andwe are providing homes andmortgages in that class.” Curtis concedes that,in themiddle classmarket, BMC is nowcompeting against the commercial banks,credit unions,and anyother companies that providemortgages.But he believes that BMChas its advantages.“What separates us from the rest in- clude the unique product that we offer to our clients in terms of funding and fees,and a technical service that you cannot get from the others,”he proffers.“If a person has to finance the purchase of a house,we send our technical team to do our own assessment of that particular unit,prior to the client having to deal with that.Wewalk the client through the pro- cess,not only froma financial standpoint,but froma technical standpoint.” THE BAHAMAS MORTGAGE CORPORATION In another example of BMC’s evolution over the years,Director of Operations,TerranceHanna relates that the agencyhas recentlybegun developing its own properties and then selling the finished units, rather than just waiting to finance projects.“So,we have launched an initiative to begin our own con- struction,”he says.“Andwe’re finding various ways to becomemore efficient in terms of green houses, green initiatives.Rather than just filling a customer request,we’re looking to improve themodels and types of buildings.” Curtis adds that BMC is also coming on stream withmulti-familyand detached units–housing products that are not the norm in the Bahamas.“In NewProvidence,where themajorityof our citizenry lives,there is a limited amount of land,”he states.“So, the corporation ismaking that adjustment wherewe are talking about multi-familyunits within one space and not necessarilya single familyunit on one piece of property.” BMC is alsomoving into the redevelopment of urban areas,and has recentlycompleted a pilot housing project: TheQueens ParkUrban Redevelop- ment Project.“We acquired land inQueens Parkand redeveloped that urban areawith five homes using non-conventional building systems and focusing on green housing,”Curtis reports.“In addition,we’ve taken climate change into consideration.We live in a hurricane belt but,historically,we have not built to facilitate that.While some builders have impact resistant windows and build foundations above sea level,we have not been consistent in doing that.But