The news that the PPP government has accomplished its goal of distributing 50,000 house-lots within the five years they projected, must be acknowledged for what it is: a singular display of political will and execution skill to serve the ordinary people of Guyana. As a basis of comparison, it is instructive to note that only 7,089 lots were allocated over the five years the APNU/AFC coalition was in office between 2015 and 2020. It is very easy to make promises, as for instance one previous government did to “feed, house and clothe” (FHC) the nation within a five-year plan, but left them well on the road to hungriness, homelessness and nakedness at the end of the plan period. When the PPP government was finally allowed to take office in August 2020, five months after it had won the elections, it immediately plunged into a whirlwind of activities directed at fulfilling its manifesto promises that had secured its win in the first place.
While the infrastructural drive has been tagged as addressing the overarching need of the country to facilitate the foundation for the economy writ large, the distribution of house lots along with incentives for building homes was directed at the Guyanese people to give them a foundation for their own personal wealth and security. The government invested some $244 billion in this sector. And part of that infrastructure served them also – wells and water lines; power generation and distribution; roads and bridges to improve commuting to and from jobs etc.
Housing for Guyanese reflects a need that goes back to our beginnings in slavery and indentureship when plantations provided primitive barracks and logies for the workers that were, in the words of one of the chairman of Bookers the largest plantation owner, worse than the stables for mules. At the abolition of slavery, the formerly enslaved Africans bought several abandoned plantations and allocated house lots among themselves. Others bought individual house lots in the front lands of functioning plantations to form “proprietary” villages. The indentured labourers who followed the slaves into the plantations also migrated out of the logies by purchasing house lots in the front lands from the plantation. The houses built on the house lots were the first concrete possession of peoples who had formerly lived in constant fear of being dispossessed by plantation owners.
In the 1940s the colonial government initiated several housing schemes for the urban poor, along with funds for concessional mortgages. In 1947, the sugar planters funded a Sugar Industry Welfare Fund (SILWF) that was to provide 12,000 house lots and funding for a like number of houses in what was dubbed Extra-Nuclear Housing Schemes. In its 1972-1976 FHC program, the PNC had promised 65,000 houses but at the end of the plan program less than 5,000 had been built. Moving into the post-PNC era, the PPP focused on housing, and with Irfaan Ali as Minister of Housing from 2006 to 2015, great strides were made – and it is not coincidental that it is during his presidency, since 2020, this has accelerated.
From figures released late last year when house lots allotments had reached 40,290, Minister Croal revealed that an incredible 46 percent of those allocations were made to women, while 28 percent went to men. Youths also benefitted since 53% of the allottees were under 35. Reacting to criticism by the Opposition, back in 2022 PM Phillips had revealed that over 50% of allottees were of African Guyanese provenance.
But house lots are only stepping stone to house ownership, and in this area the government has also done yeoman service in facilitating the latter through mortgages. The latter is a form of long-term, forced savings for persons facing difficulty in saving directly from their pay checks or wages. Developing countries need savings for investments, and from mortgages banks can count on a steady investable income stream. Homeowners accumulate increasing equity in their houses, which historically, has always tended to increase. The ceilings on low-income mortgage rates at commercial banks and the New Building Society were increased to $30 million. Additionally, Value Added Tax (VAT) was removed on local produced building material, and a steel and cement subsidy introduced for first-time home buyers. To encourage young professionals to have a stake in Guyana’s development, 3,500 homes have been built in several areas at concessionary financing arrangements.
