A practise that was originally started in England is being held up as a possible solution to some housing problems on reserve.
Robert McGarvey is an economist in Edmonton.
He spent much of his life in London, England and says a lot of property in that city is technically owned by the ancestral duke of Westerminster.
According to McGarvey when you buy property in certain parts of London you’re not actually buying it, you’re just leasing it for 99 years, or 199 years.
As a result the land can never actually be lost to private developers.
McGarvey recently wrote a letter in which he described — as he put it — the double-edged sword of home-ownership on reserve.
In recent years the federal government has begun to push the prospects of owning homes on reserve as a way of driving up wealth in native communities.
On the one hand McGarvey supports private ownership saying it’s been one of the main driving forces behind western civilization.
However he also sees some of the concerns that have been raised by native communities, who fear big corporations and companies will begin to “own” reserves — forcing residents off their land.
The solution he argues could lie in the form of a compromise commonly referred to as free-hold leases.
Although the lease-terms are 99 years in some places there’s nothing to say they couldn’t be another length of time.
This way he says the band will never lose its land for good:
“At the end of the lease it all comes back to the band so after the contract runs out, no matter who owns it, the band at the end of the contract has the right to renew the contract or take the land back into its possession.”
Unlike a rental property however, he argues that people putting money into the building generally are able to enjoy it.
With leases lasting up to a century or longer, the tenants are more likely to put money into a home or business which adds to their value and that of the community.
“So if you fix it up or add an addition to your property generally that value is stored in the accruing value of the asset.”
He adds there are some private properties on native reserves in B.C. that are based on the lease-hold idea.
He explains some private developers will come in to develop a sub-division, and then sells sub-leases for private home-purchases.
He says this type of approach could be one worth taking.