Govt poised to exceed 10,000 house lots by year end – Rodrigues

…as another 3000 lots to be allocated

The Government stands poised to not only deliver on its promise of 10,000 house lots being delivered by year end, but to also exceed it. This is according to Minister within the Housing and Water Ministry, Susan Rodrigues.
Since it came to office, the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) set itself the ambitious target of distributing 50,000 house lots in five years, or 10,000 house lots per year. But 2021 is coming to a close, and according to Minister Rodrigues, the Government is poised to exceed that target for this year.

“To date, we have allocated almost 8,000 already, and we have at least 3,000 more to be allocated for 2021. So, by the time we get to the end of this calendar year, we would have surpassed our target of 10,000 for this year,” she said.
During her interview with this publication, Rodrigues also spoke of the backlog of housing applications currently in the system at the Central Housing and Planning Authority (CH&PA), as well as the efforts being made to clear it.
“When we checked the status of applications as of August 2, when we took office, there was 70,000 outstanding applications in our systems,” Minister Rodrigues explained to this publication.
As of August 2021, the PPP Government had processed close to 2000 titles and transports in its first year in office, while starting construction on 1000 houses and conducting massive infrastructural work… all part of a more-than-$14 billion investment in the housing sector.
Since taking office, the PPP Government has made it clear that it is aiming to fulfil its manifesto promise of distributing 50,000 house lots over the next five years. The Ministry of Housing has also said it would work with other State agencies to make more land available for housing development.
These agencies include the National Industrial and Commercial Investments Limited (NICIL); the Guyana Lands and Surveys Commission (GLSC), and the Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuCo). Land acquisition for housing development would be pursued.
This year, the housing sector received a total allocation of $8.9 billion in the budget. Of this sum, $6 billion will go towards infrastructure and utility works in new and existing areas. This will pave the way for the allocation of over 10,000 house lots and 7000 land titles to citizens.
The Government has also gone countrywide with its Dream Realised house lot distribution campaign, an exercise that has so far distributed over 4000 house lots and over 500 land transports. In the Government’s first four months in office, 3500 house lots were distributed – an amount that was half the number of house lots distributed during the former Government’s five years in office.
In a bid to identify and demarcate new areas for housing schemes in light of the shrinking residential land space in Region Four (Demerara/Mahaica), the CH&PA had also commenced surveys in November of last year.
It was a multi-agency effort, as CH&PA had collaborated with the Guyana Lands and Surveys Commission (GL&SC), the National Industrial and Commercial Investments Limited (NICIL), and the Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuCo). (G3)