“Dream Realised” Housing Drive 2023: 800 low, moderate-income house lots distributed along ECD

…Govt trying to acquire additional lands to meet housing demand – Min Croal

The Housing Ministry on Monday opened up 800 house lots for allocation on the East Coast of Demerara (ECD) as it launched the second edition of the Dream Realised Housing Drive for 2023.

The lots were allocated along Good Hope and Two Friends Village to low and moderate-income earners. After spending hundreds of millions of dollars to develop the lots, the Ministry opened them for as low as $100,000.
When the areas are fully developed, there will be spaces for worship, an entertainment center, two playgrounds, and 12 government buildings that will feature health centers and other services. Industrial and commercial activities are also being catered for to spark job creation.
Chief Executive Officer of the Central Housing and Planning Authority (CHPA), Sherwyn Greaves shared that these new allottees will be benefitting from a prime area since a new commercial zone is in the pipeline for Enmore.
Due to the many new opportunities which are opening, Greaves added that being on the East Coast of Demerara poses a great advantage.
“You will not be in the back of anything. You will be in the front of that allocation and that new village that is coming. Added to that, in Enmore, by the end of this year and early next year, there will be a massive commercial industrial area set aside there similar to the one in Eccles. That is also an opportunity for job creation.”
He added, “We are not here to make a profit. We are here to help the citizens of Guyana. If it has to put us in a deficit, that is fine…At the end of the day, it is for our citizens to be able to fulfill that dream of owning their own homes. That is our mandate.”
The intention of government through its robust housing initiative endeavors to assist Guyanese with home and land ownership, enabling persons to transcend the poverty lines and towards financial freedom. This was positioned by Minister within the Ministry of Housing, Susan Rodrigues.
“We know it is a struggle for everyone to be able to purchase a property, whether it is at market value or at a subsidized cost…We don’t believe in keeping people in bondage or having you pay rent for the result of our life and we can achieve empowerment through homeownership and land ownership. You would have heard the Opposition talk about things like rent subsidy for low-income earners. That is not something that we believe can benefit people in the long run. We believe that will keep people in poverty,” Minister Rodrigues stated during her address.
In 2022, $10.9 billion was expended for housing development on the East Coast of Demerara. Another $10.2 billion has been allocated in the Ministry’s expenditure for other infrastructural projects this year and includes road networks, culverts, bridges, water distribution, and the electrical network.
Meanwhile, due to the increasing demand for house lots and land for industrial activities Housing and Water Minister Collin Croal told the gathering that the Central Housing and Planning Authority is seeking to acquire additional lands to meet the demand.
He added that in some regions, lands have been identified to facilitate further expansion of existing housing areas, but in other regions, there is still a search to acquire new lands.
“The work continues for us to acquire new lands, in this year alone, our focus will be on regions 1, 3, 4, 6 and a portion in 5. Areas in region 10 and 7 have already been identified, so those will be our focus regions,” Croal said.
He further added that it is not an easy task to find additional lands for housing in some areas, explaining that the resources required to develop the lands are much more costly when compared to developing lots individually.
“And simply because we have to keep going inwards, as we keep going inwards, we keep going closer to the conservancies and as we keep going closer to the conservancies, the preparatory work requires much more when compared to when we are closer out on the mainland. So that is one of the reasons you will see we have an increase cost when doing these communities.”
He related that some $36 billion in contracts were awarded in the past months for the development of new housing areas and schemes.
He nevertheless, reiterated that there continue to be unscrupulous activities in relation to house lot sales, and persons continue to fall prey. He called for support from the public in prosecuting those culpable.
He noted that some persons have backed away when it comes to providing statements, which does not help in erasing such issues within the system.
Empty lands
Another issue that the Ministry will be addressing is persons who have been allocated lands but have failed to start construction. Minister Croal said a ‘fair bit’ of such cases exist in the housing schemes.
“We will be addressing that in our next period of focus because, at the end of the day, there are some desperate persons out there who are going through the system and are awaiting and need to move on. It puts at a disadvantage, you who are in that category for somebody who would have gone through the right process.” (Rupa Seenaraine)