250 allottees identify lands at Non Pareil, Enterprise

Approximately 250 allottees in Non Pareil, East Coast Demerara (ECD) were able to identify their lots and now have access to commence construction of their homes.
Surveyors from the agency’s Planning and Settlement Department led 200 people who had been assigned lots on a lot identification exercise earlier this week.
Another 50 people who had been assigned home properties in Enterprise, ECD, were also guided through a similar process.
Infrastructure construction is now underway in several projects along Demerara’s East Coast, totalling $12 billion, to ensure that allottees have full access to their property.

Plantation Hope, Plantation Enterprise, Non Pareil, Good Hope, Lusignan Phases 1 & 2, Two Friends, Success, and Le Ressouvenir are all undergoing development works, and upon completion, around 5000 families will be able to go on to the next stage of homeownership.
In November, Housing and Water Minister Collin Croal conducted a series of visits and on-site meetings with contractors responsible for the infrastructure development works that are ongoing in several schemes along the East Coast of Demerara.
The schemes visited include Plantation Hope, Plantation Enterprise and Non Pareil, Good Hope, Lusignan Phases 1 & 2, Two Friends, Success, and Le Ressouvenir.
Having had a first-hand look and being able to inspect the ongoing works, Croal called on the contractors to be mindful of their deadline, as thousands of citizens are eagerly awaiting access to their lands which was promised to them by the end of 2023.

Nevertheless, during his year-end press briefing, he related that 7128 house lots were allocated in Region Four and according to Minister Croal, the majority of these were distributed along the East Coast corridor.
Last year, in total, some 8578 residential plots were allocated across Guyana. Some 1079 house lots were distributed in Region Three (Essequibo Islands-West Demerara), 125 in Region Five (Mahaica-Berbice) and 192 in Region Six (East Berbice-Corentyne).
Apart from residential lands, the Housing Ministry also allocated 181 plots of land for commercial/industrial use as well as regularised 860, taking the total land distribution last year to 9612 lots. This, according to Minister Croal, is 32 per cent of the total allocations by the PPP/C Government since taking office.
Over the past three years, some 30,468 plots of land were allocated. These include 28,368 residential lots through the “Dream Realised” initiative; 659 commercial and industrial lots as well as 1445 regularised lots.
Meanwhile, Minister within the Housing Ministry, Susan Rodrigues, disclosed that over the last three years, there has been a consistent 40 per cent allocation of house lots exclusively to women. This number peaked last year at 43 per cent.
Low, moderate, and middle-income earners accounted for 90 per cent of the total allocations.

“That is in keeping with the objective of the housing programme, that is to ensure that affordable housing is provided to all Guyanese,” Rodrigues stated.
Minister Croal further highlighted that youth were significant beneficiaries, with individuals aged 35 years and under receiving 15,119 house lots. This constitutes 53.3 per cent of all allottees since 2020.
The senior Housing Minister went on to note that there were 70,000 pending applications in the system when the current Administration took office in 2020. He noted that while this figure has been reduced over the past three years, the backlog continues to build with new applications. In fact, under the PPP/C Government, there are 13,000 new applications in the system.
Currently, as it stands, there are 80,000-plus applications in the system but only 63,032 are active. He explained that the Ministry does not remove the dormant applications from the system.