"It has been a complication for us, because we had our budget organized around the purchase of the apartment, now we have to add the rent which is also very expensive, besides the fact that we will have to do two moves in a short time which is complex and requires financial resources,"
SANTO DOMINGO- The series of problems arising from the COVID-19 pandemic and its long list of consequences has caused delays in the delivery of many construction projects, some of which are more than a year past the date on which the delivery of keys was projected.
This situation has generated various difficulties among buyers who have had to rethink their plans and adapt them to the indefinite reality of some works, many of which do not specify the exact completion date and others that have committed to the schedule, but are far from their final phase.
“There was a shortage of some basic items (steel, cement, blocks, etc.), in addition to import delays, due to logistical problems that affected the market,” explains engineer Jochimin Pérez Iglesias of Constructora Jprez SRL.
Zoilo Tavarez agrees, pointing out that the delays are due to the fact that logistics in the supply chain were affected by the pandemic and Ukraine, adding the "subsequent primary consequence of the increase in maritime freight costs and saturations of shipments from China and other parts of the world.".
Engineer Rafael Durán asserts that the delay in the delivery of construction projects is widespread, citing even large firms that are part of Dominican history and that have delays in all their buildings, "some of which reach up to three years.".
Engineer Pérez adds to the list of obstacles that have led to the delays the supply impasse at the Ministry of the Environment, with the resulting delays affecting all its related processes. “Plus the situations that have arisen in the different offices where we process these projects, which caused delays of up to six months. For example, the transfer of plan processing from the Ministry of Public Works and Communications (MOPC) to the Ministry of Housing and Buildings (MIVED) caused all the files to be delayed due to the adjustment to the change.”.
Engineer Tavarez maintains that some developers, faced with the uncertainty generated, even opted to return the advances paid by clients; in addition, they reformulated the prices, given the increase registered in construction materials.
The purchasers and their consequences
Carlos Manuel Feliz and Alejandra Polanco are a couple who will be getting married next October. They had planned to move into their own apartment, for which they reserved a unit in a project scheduled for delivery last April. However, they will have to rent somewhere to live until the building is completed, which, according to the construction company, will be finished in December of this year.
“For us it has been a complication, because we had our budget organized based on the purchase of the apartment, now we have to add the rent which is also very expensive, besides the fact that we will have to do two moves in a short time which is complex and involves financial resources,” the couple explained.
“The thing is, I don’t understand why some construction companies that started building after the project where we bought are already in their final stage, why some have continued without stopping and others haven’t,” wondered one buyer who prefers to omit her name.
Reasons
“The delays in a project are numerous. There are engineers who start a project without a financial plan and don't know where they're going to get the resources, trust structures that lie to the trustee. When it comes time to start construction, they don't have the resources to begin; everything is sold, but they don't have the provision they have to contribute to the trust. They have the loan approved, they already have the sales balance, but they don't have their own provision, and that already causes a delay,” explains engineer Durán.
He mentions that there are other cases where engineers decide to build regardless of the cost of materials, and that reality can be different and depends on a number of factors. “There are delays due to paperwork; sometimes you have a trust or a construction project and the title hasn't been finalized yet, so you have to waste time on that.”.
Other possible causes of delay can be found in the non-approval of plans, legal documentation of the property title and there are other delays that are given because there are people who voluntarily wait for the construction materials to come down, in other cases they simply have all the conditions and do not deliver due to negligence, others due to lack of knowledge of the project even having the resources.
