Housing Ministry rejects reports of housing drive being a ‘profit tool’

The Housing and Water Ministry has outright rejected an article that was published in a section of the media suggesting that the Government’s housing drive is a profit tool.
In rebuffing the assertions in the article, the Ministry has said that its housing projects seek to benefit and improve the lives of Guyanese.
In an article dated Wednesday, August 4, 2021, the Ministry said the news entity published the following headline, “Housing Ministry to now construct and sell houses for profit”. However, to say the least, the Ministry noted, the article reflects poor journalistic skills, and is grossly inaccurate.
“The information shared in the article is grossly distorted, and does not fully reflect the information presented by the Minister of Housing and Water, the Hon. Collin Croal, in response to questions posed to him by Opposition Parliamentarian Annette Ferguson,” a statement from the Ministry has said.
The Housing and Water Ministry clarified that Ferguson’s two-part question sought clarity on the $13.9B contract for the construction of housing units in Regions Three, Four, Five, and Six, as well as the breakdown of the category of persons to benefit and the expected and final cost for the housing units.
According to the missive, Minister Croal clearly outlined that persons within the low, moderate, middle, and high-income brackets would benefit from the initiative.
It added that a breakdown of the costing was also provided, and as has been the policy for years under similar housing projects, the cost for the land is included in the final cost. The Ministry disclosed that the low-income units carry a final cost of $5.5 million, of which $300,000 is the cost for the land.
It was further disclosed that the moderate-income units will be sold at $7.5 million, of which $300,000 is the cost for the land. The costs for high- and middle-income units stand at $19.9 million and $13.9 million respectively, with the land carrying a cost of $1.5 million in each case.
“As has been the policy on similar housing projects for the construction of housing, each beneficiary is only required to pay the Ministry of Housing’s Central Housing and Planning Authority the cost of the land, and the remaining cost is paid to the contractor through a mortgage scheme with any financial institution of the beneficiary’s choice,” the correspondence from the Ministry noted.
“For Kaieteur News to even suggest that the agency is making a profit on these units is preposterous and disingenuous, as the cost for the lands these units are built on is heavily subsidised by the Government. If the newspaper is running out of options for sensational clickbait headlines, in hope of generating a profit, they should spend time researching facts and useful information, which will be beneficial to their readers, and not mislead them.”
The Ministry has assured that all of the Government’s programmes, including its ambitious housing drive, are crafted for the people of this country, and are not profit-driven in any way. On this note, it said the contracts for the construction of the 5,000 housing units across the aforementioned regions were awarded using the competitive bidding process by public tender.
The Ministry, therefore, said that it will not be daunted or distracted from its numerous development projects, all of which stand to benefit Guyanese from all walks of life, and will continue to execute its programmes and policies with precision, transparency and equality.