Abstract
Puerto Rico currently has an excess of high-priced housing units, partly because of the recession that has been affecting the Island since 2006; on the other hand, state-subsidized housing has the largest demand, but high construction costs and government-imposed price caps have kept developers from pursuing these types of projects. The demand for subsidized housing units has been estimated at 22,000 for years 2012 thru 2016. Other jurisdictions, mainly in Europe, have adopted maritime cargo containers (technically known as Inter-Modal Steel Building Units, “ISBUs”, when used for construction) as structural building blocks for a variety of edifices. ISBU-based housing provides an environmentally-friendly alternative to traditional construction that uses surplus maritime cargo containers, thereby reusing a valuable material that would otherwise become a disposal problem. ISBUs have performance specs that surpass those of traditional concrete construction used in Puerto Rico, at a considerable cost reduction of approximately 60%. Once common prejudices regarding the safety, longevity, and quality of ISBU-based construction are overcome, this type of construction could be an innovative solution to a long debated problem that affects many stakeholders. The key to providing safe, modern housing to the poorest in our society may well come from thinking “inside the box”.
Highlights
The Puerto Rico economy faces several challenges it must overcome if it is to emerge from the recession it is still submerged in
The economic activity that takes place post-closing of a real estate property by way of the multiplier effect affects professionals and businesses directly tied to real estate sales, and indirectly the rest of the economy through the multiplier effect
Puerto Rico currently faces a crisis in the availability of cost-effective housing for low-income individuals and families
Summary
The Puerto Rico economy faces several challenges it must overcome if it is to emerge from the recession it is still submerged in. A construction modality that has been gaining traction across the world is to use maritime cargo containers as the structural building blocks for development of almost any type of real estate; technically, these containers, when used for permanent building structures, are known as Intermodal Steel Building Unit ( on "ISBU") These uniform "building blocks" provide an extremely sturdy, modular infrastructure for easy combination into different arrangements and costs less than the price of comparable concrete-based housing traditionally built in Puerto Rico. These containers meet or exceed all parameters associated with traditional housing construction safety standards. It should be noted that under the proposed model, the municipality provides the terrain free of cost to the developer, an incentive that could continue under the proposed ISBU-based construction model
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