The twin-island nation of Antigua and Barbuda is facing a critical bottleneck in its ambitious national housing expansion initiative, with Prime Minister Gaston Browne confirming that overseas recruitment of construction labour is now on the table to overcome widespread workforce gaps.\n\nSpeaking during his regular weekly broadcast to the public, Browne framed labour scarcity as one of the most pressing barriers to delivering much-needed new housing across the country, even as the government pushes to ramp up construction output. The administration has a clear goal: scale annual housing production to 500 units per year, a target that the current domestic workforce simply cannot support, according to the Prime Minister.\n\nBrowne clarified that while securing sufficient funding remains an ongoing challenge for the programme, acute shortages of both skilled tradespeople and general unskilled labour have equally slowed the pace of new home development. To unlock progress, the government is actively evaluating all options to expand the available construction workforce, with bringing in additional workers from international markets emerging as a viable solution to supplement local teams.\n\nThese remarks accompanied the Prime Minister’s formal outline of the government’s 10-year housing strategy, which sets a minimum target of 5,000 new residential units to be delivered across the country by the end of the decade. Browne emphasized that this ambitious target is designed to directly address unmet demand and lift living standards for a large share of the population.\n\n“Over the next 10 years, we must deliver no fewer than 5,000 new homes to our people,” Browne stated. He projected that the initiative could improve housing outcomes for as many as 15,000 Antiguans and Barbudans: based on an average occupancy of three people per home, the programme would move roughly that number of residents into quality, middle-income housing stock.\n\nThe scale of unmet demand for housing in the country far outpaces the 10-year target, official data shared by the Prime Minister shows. Currently, roughly 7,500 completed housing applications are waiting to be fulfilled, and demand continues to climb even as new units are completed and allocated to applicants.\n\nAlongside workforce expansion, the government is working to lock in additional financing to support the scaling of the housing programme. Browne revealed that negotiations are currently ongoing for a proposed $100 million housing bond, which would allow the government to lift annual construction output to between 300 and 400 units in the near term, before ramping up to the full 500-home annual target. The National Housing Development and Urban Renewal Company, the state entity leading the initiative, has also been directed to step up its own recruitment efforts as part of the broader push to accelerate construction.\n
Antigua and Barbuda May Import Construction Workers to Meet Housing Targets
