Minister within the Communities Ministry, Valerie Sharpe-Patterson on Tuesday disclosed that the Government was planning to build condos and duplexes in Georgetown, along the East Coast of Demerara and in Diamond, East Bank Demerara to accommodate the large population that had applied for house lots in Region Four (Demerara-Mahaica).
Sharpe-Patterson was at the time speaking at a People’s National Congress (PNC) press conference on Tuesday at Congress Place, Sophia.
According to the Minister, the People’s Progressive Party/Civic’s housing policy was inadequate, so the current Government has decided to build condos and duplexes for the people.
Minister within the Communities Ministry, Valerie Sharpe-Patterson
She stated that instead of house lots, apartments could be built for persons who could not afford to buy their own homes. She stated that the Government has already secured 1.3 acres of land in East La Penitence on which it planned to build four condominium buildings.
The apartment buildings, she added, will be three or four stories high and will have eight apartments on each flat.
She stated that the development of the duplexes, which would be incorporated into the first phase of the project, would commence in the first quarter of 2017.
The Ministry had stated that its medium-term objective was to deliver approximately 10,000 housing units in the next five years to eligible Guyanese, particularly State employees, low-income households and the youth population.
The housing programme being pursued by the Administration comprises four components: squatter resettlement, urban regeneration, urban rehabilitation and the provision of housing needs in hinterland communities, and will allow for the construction of approximately 3300 apartment units in three locations, as well as 1000 duplexes in 12 areas spread across five coastal regions.
Sharpe-Patterson stated that the apartments would have two and three bedrooms and would be priced “somewhere around that of the turnkey homes”. She assured that when the people see the design, they would want to pay the price the Government would set.
According to the Housing Minister, the price for the apartments and duplexes might fluctuate if the winning contractor decides to modify the plan.
Thus far, she noted that the Ministry has placed an advertisement for expressions of interest in the newspapers for contractors to bid for the project.
“Building viable communities have always been the thrust of the PNC’s housing policy in and out of office. In our Party’s first 10 years in office, we developed a housing programme that provided housing of satisfactory standards and sizes for low and middle-income families. We stimulated cooperatives, self-help and other forms of non-profit-making means of building communities. We changed the landscape of housing and homeownership in Guyana,” she said.
“The 1000 homes project, also known as the Turnkey Project, was officially launched at Providence in 2014 by the PPP Government. However, despite being allocated, several of the almost 50 completed houses remain unoccupied because of poor construction and finishing, coupled with structural faults,” she said, adding that the programme was marred by poor management.
She added that the coalition Government was committed to ensuring that suitable and developed land was made available for private house building for those persons who could afford to build their own homes. The Minister promised the development of a “prosperous and efficient” construction industry as an essential component of economic growth and prosperity.
Even as the plans are being finalised, Sharpe-Patterson is hoping that lending institutions would provide incentives to the industry through mortgage financing and short-term loans for repairs, extensions of homes and home improvement and long-term loans for new construction and the rebuilding of condemned houses.
“Guyana’s housing problem cannot be considered in isolation from the economy as a whole. It must, inevitably, be related to the whole process of social and economic development of our country,” she noted.
