Abaco continues to suffer a housing shortage, but now it is also in the midst of a people shortage, Abaco Chamber of Commerce President Daphne DeGregory-Miaoulis said yesterday.

Closing out the Abaco Business Outlook, DeGregory-Miaoulis lamented that housing remains a problem on the island, and called on the government to put in place incentives for Bahamians to construct purpose-built housing that will be barred from being put into a short-term rental pool.

She said much of the housing that is available has been put on short-term rental sites like Airbnb, and is no longer available for long-term leasing - a problem that is occurring globally, stripping cities and towns of rental units.

'We would urge our government come up with an incentive to attract Bahamians to build specifically resident housing, offering back duty-free concessions to build the local residences, putting a cap on rents on one, two, three bedroom units that cannot be used for Airbnbs.

"That's been a part of the problem. Everything that could be rented has gone into an Airbnb rental, nothing for long term."

She added that the island's population needs to grow, not only to accommodate more labor to continue to rebuild after Hurricane Dorian, but also people to participate in the Abaco economy as businesses come back.

"We need to grow our population," DeGregory-Miaoulis said.

"We need more people, we need more bodies, new developments are going to need more labor, and we need more consumers.

"All these new businesses, you know, every day we get new businesses that are opening up here. It's great.

"There are so many different kinds of businesses, but we need a population that will support them. We need to grow our population. Where are they gonna live? We need more houses."

She said she continues to advocate for concessions for the island, for Abaconians to be able to afford to rebuild and return to the island.

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