MINISTER within the Ministry of Communities with responsibility for Housing, Valerie Adams-Patterson said the Guyana Cooperative Credit Union League (GCCUL) has signaled its intention to finance the purchasing of housing units for its members at an interest rate of one per cent.

Minister Patterson made the disclosure on Wednesday, while engaging members of the Guyana Defense Force (GDF) at Base Camp Ayanganna.

She said the proposal was made by the league during a meeting on Tuesday with the Central Housing and Planning Authority (CH&PA).

“They are willing to give you the loan for the duplex or the town house rather than you having to go to the bank,” she told the soldiers, who responded with loud rounds of applause.

She posited that the one per cent interest proposed is unbeatable. “You have to ensure that your credit union agrees, because without you there is no credit union… and you are the ones to call the shots,” Minister Adams-Patterson added, while noting that the GCCUL’s Annual General Meeting (AGM) is coming up shortly. Based on the discussions with the Ministry, it is anticipated that the proposal will be concretised then.

“We are willing and ready to work with the credit union,” she said.

The Guyana Cooperative Credit Union League is the umbrella body for over 24 credit unions across Guyana, including the Clerical and Commercial Workers Cooperative Credit Union Limited, the Guyana Police Force Cooperative Credit Union Limited and the Guyana Defence Force Cooperative Credit Union Limited.

The league has a membership of 26,589, and a total asset of $21,614,480. The league’s AGM is set for May 2016.

Additionally, during that meeting with the credit union league, the Ministry of Communities through CH&PA proposed that the authority provides the materials and the military men and women assist in the construction of the duplexes or town houses.

REDUCED COSTS
This, she said will reduce the cost with the labour cost being deducted.
“We call that sweat equity where you put in the labour, so all you have to pay for really is material and whatever administrative cost that goes to it. And you could see yourself bringing the cost to your units way down… it’s a possibility and I am excited about this possibility,” she posited.

This proposal was well received by those present, with many shouting “that sounds way better.”

Minister Adams-Patterson told the ranks that CH&PA’s decision to provide citizens with duplexes, condominiums and/or town houses is because of the similar fact that many Guyanese cannot afford to build their own home.

She pointed out that while there are 25,000 live applications in the system for house lots, there are 28,000 lots that were allocated but remain unoccupied because of persons’ inability to build due to the lack of finance.

This was echoed by the CH&PA’s Chief Executive Officer, Lelon Saul, who explained that the authority is on a mission to provide Guyanese with affordable housing solutions.

“We recognise that in many cases, several persons are unable to access mortgage financing, and as a result, there are several unoccupied lots throughout our schemes and, apart from that, the cost of developing housing schemes is bothersome,” the CH&PA CEO said.

He assured those ranks who had reservations about the new housing initiatives that several factors were taken into consideration when designing the units, including durability and privacy.

The Government’s new housing solution caters for the construction of 265 duplexes and 38 townhouses and should benefit 758 families in 2017. The intervention is across 10 areas in six regions.

The duplexes are of three different designs and to be built of concrete and wood.
Each duplex will house three units of 800 square feet (sq. ft.) and each unit will feature two bedrooms, a living room, kitchen and washroom facility. The town houses will have six units; four two-story units in the middle and one-flat units at each end of the building. These end units are designed for elderly persons or those persons with a physical disability.

The government engineer’s estimates place the cost of these units at $5M to $7 M. The Government expects to start construction of the housing unit by the end of June.