Family remittances play a big part in how the Guyanese economy functions. In 2012, some US0 million flowed into Guyana from remittances. There was a 43% decline in remittance over the period 2012-2016, while there was a 66% decline in house lot allocations during the same period. In both 2015 and 2016, remittance inflows were below US4 million.
But what was startling from the dataset at my disposal was the evidence unearthed to illustrate that more than half of this 66% decline in house lot allocations occurred over an 18-month period under the leadership of Hamilton Green at the Central Housing and Planning Authority (CH&PA) — between the period June 2015 to December 2016. This situation played a critical role in the decline in foreign currency inflows of some US$55 million (Gy$11.5 billion) over that 18-month period. Such a disservice to the nation does not deserve a national award or a Gy$16 million a year pension package, but permanent banishment to Timbuktu for gross negligence and incompetence at the highest levels in the CH&PA and the Ministry of Communities.
The empirical evidence supports a view that the distribution of house lots directly influences remittance inflows, and by extension economic growth. Did the Granger Administration have access to this narrative? Is there a reason why they have totally massacred the housing programme left by the PPP in May 2015 without immediately putting in place a bigger and better alternative programme? Talk from flunky politicians is cheap. When put into the driver’s seat, these big talkers — like Minister Bulkan — all of a sudden become “namby-pambies” and continue failing to deliver.
I would be the first to support standardised houses on new projects, but in the absence of an implementable alternative to replace what was there in the past, it was foolhardy to have curtailed the PPP’s house lot distribution programme. Again, allocation of new house lots has a direct pull on remittances, which then leverage new activities in the economy. Thus, it is a challenge to understand the rationale behind shifting from the distribution of an average of 2,700 house lots every six months since 2010 — under the PPP — to the allocation of 251 house lots in the first six months of the Granger Administration. That is a multiple of 11 times more when comparing the PPP’s performance to the APNU/AFC! For the record, in the latter half of 2016, it climbed up to an average of 996 house lots distributed in that six-month period — still almost 3 times behind the average during the Irfaan Ali era.
The idea of duplexes and town houses must be welcomed, but you cannot force that on to the people; it is not who we are as a people. It should be sold to those who are willing to live in such arrangement. But the average Guyanese has been accustomed to the single-family home on his/her own piece of land. (Yes, that house lot) Without enough of this in the market, the housing sector will be subdued, and that will hurt the inflow of remittances. Why then jettison the distribution of house lots in a period of dire foreign currency shortages?
The graph above shows that, since 2011, the housing market has experienced a rapid decline in the allocation of house lots. It also shows a corresponding decline in the issuance of certificates of title. If one were to peruse the several budgets and the dataset from the CH&PA, one would find evidence that issuance of the certificates of title over this five-year period (2011-2016) declined by 72%, while allocation of house lots declined by 78%.
Getting land into the hands of the landless is a critical first step in housing a nation, and this is what house lots do. It is not magic, President Granger; it is common sense! The macro impact will be an expansion of the national stock of housing, which can translate into economic growth. But it also means giving people the opportunity to live in dignity as they acquire their first homes. How hard can that be to roll out?
