Thousands of acres of ECD lands to open up for distribution – Croal

Thousands of acres of lands will be opened on the East Coast of Demerara (ECD) and distributed to quell the backlog of outstanding applicants in the system.
The Housing Ministry is currently finalising lands for distribution on the East Coast of Demerara in conjunction with the Guyana Lands and Surveys Commission and GuySuCo.
Housing and Water Minister Collin Croal on Monday shared that this process should commence as early as next month, since Government is committed to upkeeping its promise of 50,000 house lots within the first term in office.
“We have thousands of acres that will be available for future allocations on the East Coast. That will include starting as early as next month. There will be opportunities. Just have patience and all who are there and active will be dealt with,” he stated during a community outreach.
On the East Coast, over 2600 applicants have already been processed in areas such as Bladen Hall, Strathspey, Vigilance and La Reconnaissance.
“In under 18 months, we have allocated over 2600 persons on the East Coast. It is not the case that we have not been allocating but we have to do that in a macro-context of achieving 50,000 as a Government in this five years,” he outlined.
When Government assumed office in 2020, there were over 70,000 pending applicants in the system. Presently, even with widespread allocations across the country, this number has grown to 83,000.
The year 2021 saw thousands of working class Guyanese owning their home while the Ministry was able to exceed its target of distributing 10,000 house lots by the end of the year.
One of the most successful programmes was, in fact, the housing drive which saw over 10,000 house lots being allocated in keeping with a promise made by President Dr Irfaan Ali to distribute 50,000 house lots within five years. This was done through the distribution of house lots and the construction of homes for lower- to middle-income families, as well as young professionals.
Last year, the Ministry expended over $7.3 billion for infrastructural works in new housing schemes in Regions Three, Four, Five and Six. Another $2.7 billion was allocated to the Ministry in December last year for infrastructural works in new areas, and $2 billion for works in existing schemes.
The Ministry had also regularised over 750 informal settlers residing in Regions Four and Five, while 59 persons squatting on Government reserves were relocated. The Guyana Strategy for Informal Settlements Upgrading and Prevention (GSISUP) was also launched to address and eliminate squatting countrywide.