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(Transportation-News.com, March 26, 2013 ) Los Angeles, CA -- With an informal housing market on Havana's historic Paseo del Prado, Renaldo Belen put the hard-sell on the prospective buyer under a large tree hung with hand-lettered signs that advertized homes for sale.
A house near Boyeors, which is the avenue that heads to the city's airport, is offered for the equivalent of $120,000, with all amenities.
"The house is beautiful, it has four bedrooms, a pool with a bar and a fountain with a lion's head on top. Look," says Belen, pointing to photos on the sign, "water comes out of the lion's mouth."
Pausing for dramatic effect, Belen, one of the many touts, or "runners" working at the market, delivers what he hopes will be the coup de grace.
"This place needs no work. It is of capitalist construction," he says, using a now frequently invoked commendation meaning it was built before Cuba's 1959 revolution and is therefore of superior quality.
Given that “capitalist” has been considered a dirty worth in the communist Cuba for over a half-century, the description is perhaps something that tinges the nerves of Cuban leaders.
Still, it is in widespread usage, and that is a sign of the times on the island, where President Raul Castro has loosened up the strangle on modernization in the country.
In November 2011, the government decreed that Cubans were able to buy and sell their homes for the first time since the dawning of the revolution. “For Sale” signs are now a common sight on homes and apartments across the country. More than 100,000 properties are being posted for sale on the internet as well. The government last released its figures on the general market in September 2012, when it said 45,000 properties had changed hands within the first two-thirds of the year.
The new market, despite being active, is still trying to find itself. It still has many hurdles to overcome before it can be seen as a truly functioning market. "With the new law, you can sell your house, but there's no money, nobody to buy. There's more being offered then there is demand," said retired economist and math professor Raul Cruz, who has had his apartment in the Vedado district on the market for five months.
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Source: EmailWire.Com 
Source: EmailWire.com
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