Its name itself is a misnomer because it is not yet a corporation. It was supposed to become an autonomous corporation in June 2009 and given adequate resources to build housing projects.

As part of the corporatisation process, NHDC was supposed to get a transfer of 147.48 acres of government land mainly in Thimphu and Phuentsholing and also ownership of 1,825 government flats across the country giving a rental income of Nu 44.27 million per year.

NHDC officials said that since 2004 it wrote nine letters to the finance ministry for the transfer of land and the rental income that it currently holds. “Without land we have no way of getting loans to start construction and without the rental income we will not be able to sustain ourselves as a corporation,” said NHDC officiating managing director, Rinchen.

The ministry of works and human settlement is supposed to help with the land transfer process with NHDC already putting up a report to it in 2009.

The NHDC had also put up a proposal for Nu 820 million as seed money to build 774 units in Phuentsholing and Thimphu within the current five year plan as part of becoming a corporation.

“The proposal was shot down because the government felt that NHDC should be able to raise its own resources by taking loans against the land and using the rental,” said officiating managing director, Rinchen.

Even with the transfer of land, building homes for the low income group may be virtually impossible without government subsidy as housing loans had high interest rates said the officiating managing director. “Of the Nu 44 million annual rental income Nu 16.6 million will go as salaries, Nu 15 million in maintenance of properties and Nu 5 million for NHDC office expenses which leaves us very little capital,” he added.

Another complication is that NHDC can no longer receive free government land after becoming a corporation. It would have to lease it or buy it from the government according to new regulations.

“The plan to become a corporation has been around since our inception but it never happened, instead we get a budget from the government and our HRD training have been done away with,” said Rinchen.

NHDC has round 60 people but would require 142 staff after it becomes a corporation.

NHDC was created in 2003 to fulfill the National Housing policy of 2002, which talked of basic shelter for all as a basic human requirement. NHDC’s objective is to promote home ownership, create a transparent and well functioning market and provide and promote safe, efficient and affordable housing.

“I myself am not happy with the delay but the transfer process is going on,” said the minister of the works and human settlement ministry, Lyonpo Yeshey Zimba.

He said that a corporate NHDC was necessary since unlike a government department constrained by budgets a corporation could plan in the long term, be flexible and respond to the market needs.

The finance secretary Lam Dorji said, “we’ll transfer the rental income once NHDC becomes a corporation since right now it is still a government agency whose budget we are providing for.”