The test that ends the debate

By Johnathan Marks

There has been much debate in Trinidad and Tobago about the rent-to-own house obtained by Soleil Gonsalves, daughter of Prime Minister Ralph E. Gonsalves of St. Vincent and the Grenadines. The new UNC government has said she benefited from preferential treatment under the former PNM administration. The Gonsalves family and their supporters insist the property was acquired “on the open market”. But it is important to understand what rent-to-own actually is, who it is designed for, and why the claim that such a unit was sitting on an open market shelf waiting for anyone to purchase cannot withstand even the slightest scrutiny.

Rent-to-own is not a commercial real-estate transaction. It is not something you simply walk in off the street and purchase like a condominium or a townhouse in a private development. Typically, rent-to-own exists because thousands of people cannot access a bank mortgage. They do not meet income thresholds, do not have the required down payment, cannot pass strict credit checks, or earn their living in ways the banking sector does not recognise as stable or secure. Rent-to-own is a deliberate pathway for low- to middle-income earners who are shut out of the conventional mortgage market. It exists as a bridge for people who cannot afford a home otherwise.

Because of this, government rent-to-own schemes all over the world are inherently selective. They are discriminatory — in favour of the vulnerable. The government carries the upfront cost of construction, and the beneficiary pays a reduced monthly amount while gradually building equity. That reduced payment is the clearest evidence of the nature of the programme: it is a subsidy. It is state assistance. It is not a market-rate purchase.

In this case, Senator Anil Roberts, a government housing minister, has stated that the ordinary market rental value of the unit in question would be closer to TT$10,000 per month, yet the reported rent-to-own payment is TT$2,750. That alone ends the argument. A 70% reduction is not a commercial bargain. It is a government-supported pathway into homeownership.

And here is where the “open market” defence collapses completely. If a home in a secure, gated development, with a real market value three or four times higher, was truly available to anyone for TT$2,750 a month — ownership included at the end — do we seriously believe that Trinidadians would ignore it? Do we believe that in a country where rent is high, mortgages are hard to qualify for, salaries are stretched, and cost of living is high, people would simply let such an opportunity pass them by? That is not believable. That is not reasonable. It is not grounded in reality.

There are more than 214,000 Trinidadians on the HDC waiting list. Some have waited 10, 20, even 30 years for affordable housing. They have endured cramped rentals, unstable living arrangements, high rent prices, and the emotional and financial strain that comes with uncertainty. If rent-to-own were truly available on an open, first-come-first-served basis, one of those 214,000 long-suffering citizens — many of whom applied long before Soleil Gonsalves — would have seized the opportunity long ago.

And this raises the question that no one defending this arrangement has been able to answer: How did she beat out 214,000 Trinidadians? How? If the unit was truly “on the open market” and accessible to anyone, then how did she manage to leapfrog over every single citizen who has spent decades hoping for the very chance she received? The answer is obvious. And it does not support the idea of an open, transparent, first-come-first-served process. It supports the opposite.

This is why the insistence that the unit was obtained “on the open market” rings hollow. It is a contradiction. Rent-to-own is not designed for people with access to financing or strong incomes. It is designed specifically for those who cannot withstand the pressures of the open market. That is its purpose. That is its nature. That is the truth at the centre of this controversy.

My interest is not in the politics of the matter, nor in determining who facilitated what. Trinidad and Tobago’s investigative bodies will handle that. My interest is in public clarity — in ensuring that the people understand what rent-to-own truly is: in this instance, a social housing lifeline for those who cannot buy a home through the traditional system. And once that truth is understood, the idea that this unit was picked up “on the open market” becomes not just unlikely, but impossible.

And if anyone still doubts that, then let us perform the simplest test: put all the other available units up for rent-to-own, price them by square footage at the same rate that Soleil Gonsalves is paying, and see what happens. That experiment would settle the matter in a single day. Every eligible Trinidadian would be lined up from here to San Fernando.

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