A fund that grew to CI$26.4m
Developers pay a mandatory fee into the Infrastructure Fund when they get planning permission. Under Regulation 37A of the Development and Planning Regulations, the fund exists to finance “roads, affordable housing and other infrastructure”. The Ministry of Finance runs it, and Cabinet approves what it spends.
Between 2019 and 2024 the balance grew from CI$5.2 million to CI$26.4 million, driven by development fees and interest. Over the same six years, the Auditor General found, none of it was used for housing-related infrastructure. The report calls this “a missed opportunity”.
The government’s new housing plan, approved in December 2025, notes that the fund does not set aside fees for housing and says a portion should be. That idea is not one of the plan’s 98 formal recommendations. The Auditor General’s Recommendation 9 asks for a proposal to use the fund for affordable housing in the 2027-28 budget cycle. The housing ministry accepted it and says a proposal will be ready for consideration by the third quarter of 2027.
CI$68 million and 38 homes
Six programmes and initiatives cost almost CI$68 million between 2019 and 2024. CI$37.3 million went on construction and CI$4.2 million on administration. The other CI$26.5 million is stamp duty the government chose not to collect, through 1,539 waivers for first-time buyers. The auditor found no evidence the waivers were ever assessed for whether they raised home ownership.
Over the six years, the National Housing Development Trust delivered 38 affordable homes, with 50 more under construction at the end of 2024. The Sister Islands housing corporation built none, despite spending CI$0.6 million and having a target of three homes a year. As of February 2026, 1,194 applicants were on the Trust’s waiting list, for an average of 3.6 years. The longest had been waiting since April 2016.
The affordable home that isn’t
The standard the report uses, from the UN and the US housing department, is that housing costs should take no more than 30% of gross income. The Trust’s current programme caps a single applicant’s income at CI$4,500 a month, which puts the affordable limit at CI$1,350. The mortgage alone is about CI$1,200. With utilities, insurance and maintenance, the monthly cost is about CI$2,200, or 49% of income. The auditor’s conclusion: the programme is unaffordable to the people it is meant for.
On the open market it is worse. A CI$500,000 home with 10% down over 25 years, at 2024’s average mortgage rate of 9.28%, costs CI$3,863 a month. That is 78% of the average Caymanian salary of CI$4,968.
Most households now rent
In 2024, 52% of households rented, up from 48% in 2019. Average rent rose 42% over those years, to CI$1,945 a month. Yet the report finds the government provides no oversight of the rental market: no minimum housing standards and no inspection regime.
The law governing tenancies dates from 1998. It lets landlords seize tenants’ goods and charge double rent as a penalty, with no equivalent protection for tenants. The Residential Tenancies Act, written to replace it, was passed in 2009 and has never been brought into force. The report calls bringing it into force “the most urgent step.”
Meanwhile, rental assistance cost CI$23.5 million over the six years. The number of recipients aged 65 and over rose from 68 in 2019 to 167 in 2024.
How we checked this
- Office of the Auditor General, The Government’s approach to improving access to affordable housing (August 2026): pages 2, 3, 5 to 9, 23, 24, 70, 81 and 104.
- The report gives amounts as “$”. We show them as CI$, the government’s reporting currency.
Correction to our earlier post. Our September 2026 social post said the government grew a CI$26m fund “for affordable housing” and “spent none of it”. The fund is for roads, affordable housing and other infrastructure, and the report says none of it was used for housing, not that none was spent.
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