THE first allocation of house lots for the Remigrant Housing Scheme was done yesterday at Building Expo 2012, during a ‘One Stop Shop’ exercise conducted by the Ministry of Housing and Water/Central Housing and Planning Authority (CH&PA). This first set of allocations saw some 100 remigrating families each being given opportunities to move their application process forward, and to pull their lots for the scheme which is to be located at Providence, East Bank Demerara.
The Third International Building Expo, which comes to a close today, is being held at the Guyana National Stadium at Providence, East Bank Demerara, under the theme “Embracing Standards – Building the Future”.
Housing and Water Minister Irfaan Ali told the Guyana Chronicle that government’s policy is to encourage Guyanese to return home and invest.
“Part of the process is government assisting with the provision of house lots for their settlement, and to encourage the remigration, which of course came out of a high demand from people themselves wanting to remigrate back home, especially after the recession and the economic crisis that those countries, especially the United States (U.S), would have undergone,” he stated.
Government has set aside 1000 house lots for this purpose, Ali stated, and at the initial phase, is looking to distribute 500 lots; and “this is the first One Stop Shop that would look at allocating these house lots”.
“We had approximately 100 persons responding to come here in July, and those are the persons we are dealing with,” Minister Ali disclosed.
“By the end of July, we would have (distributed) more than 100 lots, and more than 200 persons would have confirmed their attendance in August, and the reminder in November. So we are hoping that, by November, we would have fully allocated these 500 lots,” he stated.
The criteria for occupancy of the Remigrant Scheme are very different, Minister Ali explained. “Whilst you are not supposed to own any other plot in the country, there are also some other criteria, including…a minimum investment cost of a US$100,000 that you have to invest in your property, and there is also a higher cost for the lot, and the higher cost is basically also to facilitate a higher level of infrastructure.
“Of course, the cost of the lot is reflective of the upgraded infrastructure, and there is no subsidy assigned to these allocations,” Minister Ali underscored.
One of the allottees, Ms. Sabrena Lawrie, who has lived in St. Maarten for some 14 years, noted: “Home is always home, and we enjoy being back…and I see huge progress taking place in Guyana.”
Another remigrant, Mr. Joe Bhagwandat who has been living in New York, USA, said: “I am encouraged by what I am seeing in terms of development, which you can see when you move around; and I want to make a contribution to my country.”