MINISTER with the portfolio, Mr. Irfaan Ali said Monday that Guyana’s housing sector has demonstrated significant and steady growth over the last five years.
He said the trend can be attributed to the continued aggressive divestment of land for low to moderate income housing development. In addition, Ali pointed to the realignment of the policies of the financial institutions that has also contributed greatly, as over those years, they have offered mortgages at reduced interest rates to better satisfy the needs of the targeted income groups.
“Several local banking institutions are involved in the provision of mortgage facilities to allow for the financing of individual home construction,” he said.
Ali noted as well that interest rates on mortgages have decreased for home construction, a direct result tied to the scale and impact that Government led intervention in housing has had on the policies of the lending entities.
He said: “The Ministry of Housing and the Central Housing and Planning Authority has continued to pursue a land divestment policy that allocates developed land, mainly, to low income earners in accordance with its allocation criteria.”
Ali explained that the strategy entailed the identification of land, mostly acquired from GuySuCo, to develop into housing schemes throughout the 10 Administrative Regions of Guyana.
He said the significant contribution of the construction sector has also enabled beneficiaries of the housing programme to, readily, access building materials and that aided the rapid increase in dwelling units countrywide.
Ali said, from that perspective, the policy has been to focus on new settlements development in areas or regions which have been experiencing growth and support such tendencies by raising the population threshold in those areas as a mechanism to attract more services/facilities and, ultimately, lead to the development of more sustainable communities.
“There has been recognition of the need to, strategically, embrace hinterland settlement development in a more focused and sustained manner as part of the overall objective of promoting the more balanced development of regions in Guyana,” he posited.
Ali emphasised that the synchronisation of the Central Housing and Planning Authority’s (CH&PA’s) settlement development strategy with national development objectives, as embodied in the National Development Strategy (NDS), has led to a strategic focus on supporting and facilitating new settlement development initiatives in areas designated as secondary towns.
The Minister lauded the efforts of private developers who have been involved in the construction of houses on lands that the CH&PA has made available.
“During the last five years, there were four new developers who came into the housing market and collaborated with the Ministry in the delivery of the housing programme, especially for the low income groups in the country,” he said.