National Assembly passes $2.8B supplementary funding for Housing Ministry

– to distribute another 350 new house lots in Charity

Housing and Water Minister Collin Croal on Monday announced that 350 new house lots would be distributed in Charity, Region Two (Pomeroon-Supenaam), as the Government seeks to fulfil its promise of providing 50,000 house lots over five years.
The Minister was at the time addressing the National Assembly as the Government sought approval for its $23 billion supplementary budget. Included in this was the sum of $2.8 billion for the Housing Ministry to continue its housing projects.
“We will be in Region Number Two next week on June 25 to allocate 350 lots in Charity,” Minister Croal said, noting that it was part of a robust initiative of empowering people through land ownership.

Croal informed the Committee of Supply that there were 18 areas countrywide with ongoing developmental works for new housing schemes or newly-allocated land. According to him, these areas will benefit from the requested sums.
“The $2.8 billion being asked at this time is part of the costs that will go towards the ongoing contracts that we’ve signed to the tune of $14.3 million, and all of the areas are for new openings.
“So, some would have commenced last year, on the last emergency budget, and continued into this year and the others are for the opening of new lands for allocations that have been made, including applications that were made under the APNU [A Partnership for National Unity],” the Minister said.
Some of the areas that will be targeted with the monies include Experiment, Diamond, Providence, Hampshire, Cornelia Ida and Edinburgh. According to Croal, the Central Housing and Planning Authority (CH&PA) will continue to execute works to meet the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) Government’s manifesto target of a minimum of 10,000 house lots allocated per year.
Since coming to office, the PPP/C Government has made it clear that it intends to fulfil its manifesto promise of distributing 50,000 house lots over the next five years, with the first 10,000 by this year.
Among the initiatives being considered is the establishment of a Diaspora Housing Fund. President Dr Irfaan Ali had also revealed that Government was looking at other areas of securing financing for the housing sector, including efforts to raise some US$250 million for housing projects.
Additionally, the Ministry of Housing will be working with the National Industrial and Commercial Investments Limited (NICIL); Guyana Lands and Surveys Commission (GLSC) and the Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuCo) to pursue land acquisition for housing developments.
And last year, the Government published invitations for Expressions of Interest (EoIs) from interested parties to finance housing development. Guyana Times had reported that there was local and foreign interest in funding the Government’s housing drive, thus resulting in Government creating a shortlist of the investors vying for opportunities in the housing sector.
This year, the housing sector received a total allocation of $8.9 billion. Of this sum, $6 billion will go towards infrastructure and utility works in new and existing areas. This will pave the way for the allocation of over 10,000 house lots and 7000 land titles to citizens.