National Survey, 2011, showed that more than 3.7 million Venezuelan families were living in improvised houses and slums primarily because of lack of investment in housing. Adding to this, the heavy rains during 2010 and 2011 caused drastic loss to property. Due to these problems, the GMVV was initiated in 2011 with the objective of providing good quality and dignified houses to all Venezuelans. The GMVV has been designed to construct around 3 million houses using public funds by 2019. The scheme has been growing in strength since its initiation, having constructed 350,000 houses with an investment of $22 billion in the initial two years itself (2011-2013).

GMVV also takes into consideration the aspiration and needs of the occupants. ‘Hugo Chavez Socialist City’, the new location of GMVV, provides social infrastructure like schools, sports fields, subsidised food market and green spaces. Furthermore, the homes are fully equipped with basic household appliances such as refrigerators, ovens and washing machines.

Preference for owned houses rather than rented houses has been popular in Venezuela. The scheme dwells on this inclination of the people by providing houses through the state at a particular cost, thus making it a personal asset of the occupant.

The occupants pay for the houses through government subsidised loans which are made available based on the income levels of the families. The poorest get 100% subsidy and those on twice the minimum wage get 50% subsidy. The subsidy is not applicable for those on four times the minimum wage. Further, the government banks put 20% of the funding into mortgages to back up the programme.

Over half of the projects have been undertaken with the participation of local communities. This ensured that the scheme is in tandem with the local demands, along with the community members having the obligation to supervise the project. Almost 50% of the houses built in the first 8 months of 2012 were carried out by working with local initiatives such as Integral Transformation of Habitat (TIH) and Substitution of Shanties for Houses (SUVI) programmes.

The late President of Venezuela, Hugo Chavez stressed upon the importance of grass root efforts for the success of the housing schemes. He stated that the participation of the popular power, i.e. the local community, is absolutely critical in order to achieve the ambitious housing construction number.

In the four years since the scheme started, 677,400 homes have been delivered across the country. In the coming year, 400,000 are going to be constructed and handed over to the families. The scheme has benefited the construction industry, which has grown from 5% to 16.8% of the national economy. Further, 51 new production centres across the country have been set up that manufacture building components such as windows and doors, thus boosting the local economy and providing local jobs. There has also been a decrease in structural poverty¹, from 29.9% in 1999 to 19.6% in 2013.

The progressing economic growth of the country can be attributed to ‘policies of social investment that have allowed social productivity to increase and the population’s standard of living to improve’ – Central Bank of Venezuela. q