Int’l Building Expo: Thousands allocated house lots after years of waiting

…no doubt goal of 5000 house lots, 3000 land titles achievable – CH&PA Head

Persons were beaming with smiles as they were allocated their house lots at the International Building Expo 2022 as a part of the Housing Ministry’s “Dream Realised” housing initiative.

Speaking with Guyana Times on Monday, several persons who had just received their allocation expressed that they have been waiting numerous years to be issued a house lot, some whom even applied over a decade ago.
Christopher Kissoon, who had applied for a house lot since 2011, was elated to have received a house lot after years of waiting. He commended the initiative, which has now granted himself and his family a place to call home.
“I applied for this house lot since 2011, and I got approved and it’s a blessing. I’m very happy, I’m joyful, I feel like celebrating because I’ve never really owned anything much in my life and this here is blessing to me.
“I want to thank the people in higher authority who made this possible for more and my kids so we can always have somewhere to call home,” he said.
Anjamie Beepat, who was also allocated a house lot, explained that she is aiming to start construction on her house lot as soon as possible.
“I’m very happy and very excited because I have waited quite some time now…I applied in 2017…this is like a dream come true waiting for a land on your own.
“I came yesterday and I received a call last and they said to come in…. I’ll start construction as soon as possible.”
Karran Singh further commended the services offered at the expo, lamenting that the event was well organised.
“I am satisfied, I must say, with this initiative that they have taken cause today I go through…it’s well organised I must say. Mostly when you have these kinds of events it’s a lot of bullying, people tugging and so but I see that they are conducting themselves pretty well here,” he explained.
Several other allotees also shared similar comments on the initiative.
“I feel very happy I received a house lot; I was so happy when I got that call last night.”
“I’m also really happy that along with me everybody else get through. This housing drive, it helped a lot of people, because a lot of people waiting for a very long time,” Bibi Narine said.
“I’ve been waiting 11 years, so I feel happy now because I got through, and everything just went my way today, which is nice,” Satesh Ramkelwan said.

Tremendous outcome
Meanwhile, Chief Executive Officer of the Central Housing and Planning Authority (CH&PA), Sherwyn Greaves highlighted that with the tremendous outcome that they have been witnessing, they will be able to achieve distribution of the targeted 5000 house lots and 3000 land titles.
“Yesterday (Sunday) we ended with close to 3000 house lots being distributed so hope by the end of today (Monday) we would have achieved our target of 5000, based on the activity that we see, we have no doubt that we will do it because persons are streaming in and we are moving apace.”
“So far, we have distributed close to 1500 titles…for today (Monday) we have already distributed over 200 house lots and we just started about an hour, hour and a half ago so based on that I’m confident that we’ll get to our target.”
“This activity won’t continue here…but people can still come into the office and be dealt with but the expo in its self continues.”
Greaves also stated that with the success they’ve had at this year’s building expo, they are in discussions to have this activity conducted every year.
“We were speaking up to yesterday (Sunday) saying based on the success more than likely we’ll have to do this again every year,” he said.
The expo has returned after a hiatus and is dubbed the blueprint of the future infrastructure.
It has attracted some 350 participants, of which at least 25 are foreign companies including some from the Caribbean – Suriname, St Lucia, Trinidad and Tobago, and Barbados along with others from the United States, Canada, and Ghana.
The People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) promised to deliver 50,000 house lots to Guyanese by 2025 in its campaign manifesto.
Over 11,000 house lots were distributed since the Government took office in August 2020.