5,647 more house lots, almost 4,000 titles to be distributed by year-end

– following distribution of 4,353 mostly low-income lots in 1st half of 2024

The People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) Government is set to distribute some 5,647 more house lots in the second half of 2024, following a successful first half of the year that saw the distribution of well over 4000 house lots.
Based on the forward-looking projections for the housing sector contained in the 2024 Half Year report released by the Finance Ministry, the government plans to distribute 5,647 house lots and 3,935 land titles and transports, in the second half of the year.

“Of note, in support of female-led households, through the Dream Realized initiative, women have benefitted from approximately 50.1 per cent of house lot allocations from 2020 to date,” the report states.
Low-income earners benefitted from the lion’s share of house lots that were distributed in the first half of the year. According to the report, 45.5 per cent of the 4,353 house lots that were allocated during this period were to low-income earners.
Meanwhile, moderate-income earners received 29.7 per cent of the distributed house lots, 11.4 per cent went to middle-income earners and 11.3 per cent to young professionals. Additionally, around two per cent of the lots distributed were for industrial, commercial and religious purposes.
Additionally, a total of 1,065 land titles and transports were also distributed in the first half of the year. When it comes to infrastructure development, $36.4 billion was spent of the $78 billion allocated for the housing sector to advance infrastructural development works in new and existing housing areas.
The report also contains a breakdown of the locations where almost 1000 low-income houses were built in the first half of 2024. Further, more than 500 homes are currently under construction.
“In the first half of 2024, 953 low-income houses were constructed in areas such as Kokerite, Warapoka, Haimaruni, Lethem, Nappi, Yakarinta and Tiger Pond in the hinterland, and Anna Page 48 of 98 Catherina, Leonora, Ordinance Fortlands, Williamsburg/Hampshire and Edinburgh on the coast.”
“Furthermore, works are progressing to have an additional 508 homes completed by the end of the year in areas such as Great Diamond, Groenveldt, Smith Creek, Sand Creek and Crashwater,” the report states.
As part of its manifesto, the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) had promised to deliver 50,000 house lots by the end of its first term in office; the Government had allocated $78 billion in its 2024 budget to continue the housing programme.
Only last month, close to 2,000 families from Regions Three and Four were provided with their house lots at the Housing and Water Ministry’s Central, Housing and Planning Authority’s (CHPA) ‘Dream Realised’ housing drive, at the International Building Exposition 2024.
The recipients were allocated lands at Wales Phase Two housing development in Region Three and Non-Pareil and La Bonne Intention (LBI) Phases Three and Four along the East Coast of Demerara.
Meanwhile, more than 1,500 persons received their certificates of title, marking a significant step in their lives. The ownership documents were provided to many families from La Reconnaissance, Cummings Lodge, Industry, Great Diamond, Golden Grove, Industry, Non-Pareil, and Enterprise.
The documents will provide the landowners with many opportunities including easier access to a mortgage from the local banks to build their homes. Attorney General and Legal Affairs Minister Anil Nandlall, SC, has stated that the distribution of these land titles, especially to those families who have had properties for generations but no legal show of ownership, is one way of empowering these persons.
“Since the abolition of slavery, they have been occupying lands in Anns Grove without the title. A PPP Government went in there – headed by our Prime Minister [Brig Ret’d Mark Phillips] and our Minister of Housing [Collin Croal] and Lands and Surveys as well yours truly, and we commenced an initiative that would issue to families, after 200 years or more, they’re going to get the title in Anns Grove,” the Attorney General said last year.
“That is empowerment, not talking about ancestral lands and causing strife in the country. It’s giving people titles for the lands that they’re occupying, that they own but they don’t have formal paper titles. It is those titles that they can now hold up and say they own that land, that they can say to the bank ‘This is my title; I want to borrow a loan,’ that they can pledge to educate their children, that they can transmit legally now, properties to their heir and beneficiaries. That is empowering people.”
Since taking office in August 2020, the Dr Irfaan Ali-led Government through the Legal Affairs and Housing Ministries has commenced land regularization exercises in several communities across the country.