Over 40,000 house lots allocated since 2020 – Croal

…says areas such as Moleson Creek being sought in Reg 6 allocations

In keeping with its efforts to allocate as many as 50,000 house lots by 2025, the Government had set itself the target of allocating more than 40,000 house lots by 2024-year end. It has been confirmed by Minister of Housing and Water Collin Croal that this target has already been reached.

This was revealed by Croal in an interview with the media on Monday, where he also revealed that the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) Government is looking to secure new areas for housing development, including in Moleson Creek and close to New Amsterdam, in Region Six (East Berbice-Corentyne).
“I did see a video of a complaint where persons paid for their land. But we have to understand too, because of the massive housing programme that we’re doing. We’ve already crossed the 40,000 allocations. That’s a lot of allocations to be done, if you take into context that from 2015 to 2020, you’re talking about 7534 or thereabouts, versus now in four years what we’ve completed, 40,000.”

“Think about the amount of land required to make this happen. So, the infrastructure will take time, because it’s costly. I had to come back here for supplementary even a week and a half ago,” Croal said.
The Minister revealed that with no new areas left on the East Bank of Demerara (EBD), the Government has been working on developing new areas on the East Coast of Demerara (ECD) for allocation. According to Croal, the Government is committed to ensuring that the necessary infrastructure is in place for these lands.
Minister Croal explained that a minimum of $250 billion has been spent to date on housing development. The search for new areas also continues in other areas like Region Six, where the Government is eyeing Moleson Creek and in the vicinity of New Amsterdam.
“As a priority we’ve been trying to clear the arrears. That is, for 2019 and prior. Some regions, because of the land availability, I can move higher. For example, Region Three. We’ve been able to move beyond 2019. Region Four, where majority of the pending applicants are, you’ll realise that obviously we have a log and are working to clear that.”
“We’re working on other regions to get additional lands. For example, Region Six, we’re in Moleson Creek for a new area and I’m working for another one, somewhere close to New Amsterdam. So different regions may have a different timeline, but by large what we want is for the system to work. And it has been,” the Minister also said.
The PPP/C Government is well on the way of achieving its target of 50,000 house lots by 2025. Last month, the Housing Ministry’s Central Housing and Planning Authority (CH&PA) had issued a Request for Information (RFI) on consultants that could do geotechnical assessments of new areas earmarked for residential and commercial development.
Geotechnical investigations are done to assess the physical properties of soil before conducting construction work. This helps to determine whether said soil is sturdy enough to construct structures on, among other things. (G3)