The Tribune

By NATARIO McKENZIE Tribune Business Reporter nmckenzie@tribunemedia.net THE lead developer of Lyford Hills told Tribune Business yesterday that sales of the 126 Phase I lots had "slumped" during the 2011 second half despite a promising start, with some $25 million invested in the project to-date Tennyson Wells, the former FNM and independent MP, and Cabinet minister, told Tribune Business yesterday that real estate sales are nowhere near where they were five years ago. Mr Wells said: "In terms of the sales last year, it started off pretty good and then it just slumped off at the end of the year. The second half of last year was very slow. We thought that by the end of last year we would have sold Lyford Hills out. By the end of this year our goal is to sell it out completely; we are no where near that. We may still do it if things pick up. "The response has not been what we expected. We've been selling a lot here and a lot there. Lands sales are nowhere near what they were four or five years ago. Things have been down, things have been slow. We hope things are better this year than last year." Mr Wells said that, nonetheless, Lyford Hills has done better than some of his other developments. "I think it's simply because of its location, the height of the land and style of the development," Mr Wells said. Lot prices range from the $120,000's to around $300,000. Some $25 million plus has been pumped into the development to date. Mr Wells said that for 2012 so far, interest seems to be picking up. "So far this year, interest seems to be picking up, I don't know if anything will come of it. There has been quite a number of inquiries this year," he said. In relation to Phase I of the development, Mr Wells said: "We are paving Phase I in Lyford Hills. That's where we are, and we are going to be continuing with other phases as time goes on. We are going to watch and see what happens in the first quarter, and make a decision on how fast we want to move forward with Phase II and Phase III. "Phase I, for all practical purposes, is basically finished. We have maybe another 10 truck loads of hot mix to put down and that will be finished. We have probably about two-thirds of it already paved. We still have some hot mix that we paid for and that hasn't been put down as yet. Hopefully that will be put down in another two weeks or so." Mr Wells said commercial banks needed to relax their lending policies and make it easier for persons to borrow. "Their terms are very onerous. If the banks would relax their lending policies and make it easier for people to borrow, lots would sell. We have decided to do some in-house financing. We are offering in-house financing on a couple of our projects, including Lyford Hills," he added.