[Blog] "Prove me wrong, Naila: The facts behind Mauritius' 2025-26 Budget"

Naila Hanoomanjee, your dramatic “death sentence” label for the 2025/26 budget doesn’t hold good when you look at the ground reality. There are over 100,000 m² of vacant commercial space sprawling across Port Louis, Ebene, Rose Hill, and Curepipe. Your statement is more of a child whining for lollipops after a dentist visit! The electoral misfortunes of your clan is indeed hard to swallow.

There is no sudden policy collapse; it’s the fallout created by your previous government’s reckless building spree, backed by Smart City handouts. As a former political nominee, your outcry over the 10% registration duty hike and withdrawn incentives smells more like a desperate defense of vested interests than a fair take on the market reality. 

The budget’s shift away from foreign investment will not kill the industry. It’s a long-overdue correction to a bubble you and your network may have profited from.

Let’s talk about facts. These vacant spaces, warehouses, offices, retail units, sit idle because demand, especially from foreign buyers, has dried up. Your post ignores how rental could turn this situation around. Leasing out existing properties, like the underused warehouses near Port Louis’ port or Ebene’s smart city leftovers, could tap and benefit local businesses and avoid the madness of new constructions. This isn’t just practical; it’s economic sense. Every new build gobbles up imported materials—cement, steel, fixtures—straining our already fragile foreign exchange reserves, with public debt at 90% of GDP and a 9.8% budget deficit. 

The scrapped Home Ownership Scheme stings domestic demand for sure, but piling more empty shells onto the market would only worsen the import bill, not solve it.

And then there’s the foreign labor elephant in the room, which you conveniently sidestepped. Construction in Mauritius leans heavily on workers from India, China, and beyond—estimates suggest thousands are employed, especially on those stalled Smart City projects. These workers send a big chunk of their earnings home, siphoning off forex that could otherwise stabilise our economy. With repatriation outflows potentially hitting billions annually, the budget’s move to cool construction might actually ease this drain. 

Yet, your narrative pushes for more building, which would just trigger more labor import, deepen forex losses, and leave us with yet more vacant spaces to maintain.

Your network’s panic about stalled projects and lost investor confidence rings hollow when the data shows a necessary market correction, not a death knell. Rental isn’t just a stopgap—it’s a strategy to use what we have, reduce import dependency, and curb the forex hemorrhage from foreign labor. The industry’s future lies in adapting, not expanding ad infinitum. 

Prove me wrong, Naila. Show me how more construction, with its import and repatriation costs, beats repurposing the 100,000+ m² already sitting empty as well as the bare land. 

NCR budget's bold land stance gives hope to our youths seeking affordable plots, not cronies acting as land dealers. I’m all ears.

Koomaren  Chetty