Belize’s Hidden Housing Industry Moves While You Sleep

One thing everyone agrees on, stakeholders and the Ministry of Transport, is that the safest time to move prefab homes is at night. Ronny Plett, manager at Plett Home Builders, says most people don’t realize how big this industry really is because the work happens while the country sleeps. Hundreds of homes are transported under the cover of darkness every year. In fact, Plett Home Builders alone has moved more than three thousand homes over the past two decades, without a single incident.

 

Ronny Plett, Manager, Plett Home Builders

“The thing is people don’t realize the night moving has been going on for many years. Eleven years ago, the government passed a directive to begin moving houses at night. A few companies complied at the time, and the rest continued moving during the day. They soon retracted that statement, however Plett’s Home Builders and a number of other movers continued moving in the night because we saw the big benefit of moving at night. Normal movement during the day from here to Belize City we would probably meet a hundred vehicles in the front and a hundred wanting to pass us from the back. It is crazy and very congested on the road. But at night, you could go from Spanish Lookout to Belize City and you probable meet three vehicles all night long. It is much much safer. It is much faster. It is more effective, more cost effective because we can get the job done in one day. The reality is than over the last eleven years there has probably been about two hundred homes moved in the night. The reality is the general public and the government is not aware of the size of the industry because so much of the movement happens at night already and in short spans of time. Our company alone have moved over three thousand homes over the last twenty years and we have never had an incident with anyone on the road.”