Years of waiting end as Reg 5 families receive house lots

…applicants receive long-awaited phone call to after more than a decade

Resident of Region Five (Mahaica-Berbice) on Thursday completed payments and receive their house lots located in the expanding Bath, Waterloo, and Experiment housing developments. For many, the day represented the fulfillment of a long-held dream of owning a place to call home. For years, 65-year-old Ganchamani Balkaran watched others achieve what she feared might never happen for her.
After raising six children and enduring the loss of her children’s father, she continued living in her mother’s modest home, carrying the hope that one day she too would have a place to call her own. On Thursday, as she clutched the documents confirming the allocation of a house lot at Waterloo, the emotion she had held inside for years could no longer be contained. “I feel so happy because many years ago I didn’t get through,” she said, pausing as she reflected on the long wait. “I feel so happy and so glad. I live back at my mother’s little house, and every day my family tells me I must get my own place. Now I finally get this land, and I feel so happy.”

Balkaran was among hundreds of Region Five residents who attended Thursday’s house lot allocation exercise, an event that brought together applicants from different villages but with one common dream: to finally own a piece of land on which they could build a home. The allocations form part of the continued expansion of the Bath, Waterloo and Experiment housing developments, where thousands of house lots have been created over the past several years. The area, once dominated by agricultural lands, is rapidly evolving into one of Region Five’s fastest-growing residential corridors as roads, drainage networks, water distribution systems and electricity infrastructure continue to expand. But while the programme represents another milestone in Guyana’s housing drive, Thursday’s event was less about statistics and more about people, people whose stories of perseverance, sacrifice and hope were written across their faces as they left with allocation documents in hand. A few seats away sat Omar Khan, whose journey to Thursday’s allocation stretched back to 2011. The 39-year-old labourer said he had submitted application after application, convinced that patience would eventually pay off. Instead, he later discovered that although his application existed, his name had somehow not been entered into the system. There were times when the dream seemed to drift further away, not because he had failed to apply, but because a simple administrative error had kept him from moving forward. For years, that administrative problem left him waiting while he continued providing for his wife and three children, wondering whether his opportunity would ever come. “When I received the call that I was supposed to come here, it was very delightful, very joyful,” Khan recalled. “I tried many times, and I never got through. I have been applying since 2011. My application was there, but my name wasn’t in the system,” he explained. Despite the setback, he never abandoned the dream of owning a home.

Building their dream homes
Now that the allocation has finally become a reality, his attention has already shifted to the next step. “As soon as we identify the lot, we’ll start building,” he said, determined to begin creating a permanent home for his family. His story was one of many unfolding across the venue compound of the Housing Ministry’s Region Five office at Fort Wellington. For Mahadev Jaipasar, 53, of Number Three Village, West Coast Berbice (WCB), the allocation represented something many people take for granted: a place where her family can finally settle without uncertainty.
For years, she and her family lived on Government lands while waiting for an opportunity to own property of their own. Every application carried hope. Every year without a response brought disappointment. Thursday changed that. “We feel happy because we never get our land. We living on Government land and now we finally get our own house lot,” she said. Her plans are already taking shape.
“When we get there, we’re going to build a house, and we’re going to live there,” she added, her words carrying the quiet confidence of someone already imagining a different future. Their stories echoed throughout the venue. Some beneficiaries spoke of years spent paying rent. Others described raising children while living with relatives, waiting for the telephone call that would eventually change their lives. For Balkaran, however, the day’s significance extended beyond receiving land. It represented independence. It represented dignity.
And after years of believing the opportunity might never come, it represented the beginning of a new chapter. Nearby sat Reneto Moore, a 30-year-old single father whose dream had survived more than two decades. Every parent wants to leave something behind for their children. For Moore, that legacy begins with a plot of land. She said he first applied for a house lot in 2004. Since then, life continued, her family grew, and responsibilities increased, but the application remained little more than paperwork waiting for its day.

Never give up
On Thursday, that day finally arrived. “I applied for this land since 2004; today I feel proud and happy that I’ll finally be able to build a house for me and my kids,” Moore said. There was no elaborate celebration. Just a father quietly imagining a future where his children would grow up under a roof built through his own determination. If Moore’s story reflected perseverance, Keisha Alley represented possibility. At 25, she belongs to a generation hoping to begin home ownership much earlier than many of those who came before them. Having spent time paying rent, she now sees an opportunity to invest in something that will belong to her family. “It feels great to get a house lot because I was renting a house for a good while,” she said. “I am very excited.” For Ally, owning land is about more than building a house. “It means that we will get an early start and we can put other things in place so that when our children get bigger, they will have a place to call home,” the mother of four said. While each beneficiary’s story was different, they were united by a common thread. Some had waited ten years, others waited more than twenty, and some carried the responsibility of raising children while others simply longed for a place they could finally call their own.
The Bath, Waterloo and Experiment housing developments have become central to Region Five’s expanding housing programme, with significant investment in roads, drainage, water distribution and electricity infrastructure transforming former agricultural lands into new communities. Yet on Thursday, those developments were measured not in kilometres (km) of roads or dollars spent, but in the lives they will shape.