This is according to Oscar C. Camacho, loan manager of the Commonwealth Ports Authority, who said current restrictions on land ownership have many negative, adverse effects on the real estate market.
He said “restrictions on land ownership is a debilitating and perennial-disease-like symptom that is blatantly so obvious that it is the cause of so many ills in our economy.”
Camacho said the restriction imposed by the CNMI Constitution’s Article 12 is an artificial one — one that hinders true market forces to work.
Given that the restriction remains in place, Camacho said the Marianas Public Land Trust, the Northern Marianas Housing Corp., the Retirement Fund and the Commonwealth Development Authority should form an alliance — “a sort of a consortium.”
This consortium can accomplish, among other objectives, assisting residents to not lose their homes, he said.
“It is enough that real estate ownership by anyone other than an NMI descent is restricted and thus limits our ability to sell to the highest bidder, we are again burdened with high interest rates because of this restriction on pure market forces. There are no true free market forces at work in the CNMI real estate market. There is only the appearance of a free market and the true nature of it is superficial,” he said.
It can be argued, he added, that there’s a free market force within a defined context: the restrictions placed by Article 12. But “that would be an oxymoronic argument. How can there be a restriction in a free market economy?” he said.
According to Camacho, if the four agencies would come together and pool resources, they can “fulfill a manifold of objectives including increasing interest income to benefit the general fund, securing a safe local investment vehicle, and giving the banks opportunity to continue lending for the constructions or sale of new homes.”
He added, “This essentially becomes the secondary market for investments in the CNMI.”
Camacho said it would give the borrowers confidence in keeping their homes and not worrying about losing them.
