-25,000 applications in the system, CH&PA working to make house lots available

THE Central Housing and Planning Authority (CH&PA) has recorded a huge increase in the demand for housing solutions, at a time when there are over 25,000 active applications in the system.

“We are experiencing a huge demand for housing solutions…it is something we need to study and determine what is driving the demand,” said Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of CH&PA, Lelon Saul, during an interview on the Department of Public Information (DPI)’s programme, One-on-One.

A study done by the United Nations (UN) informed Guyana that the demand, over the next four to five years, would go up to about 4,000 housing solutions a year, inclusive of renovations.

He believes that the formation of new families is a contributing factor to the high demand, but there are people who are trying to acquire additional property.
The authority has advised persons, who already own property, to refrain from applying for housing solutions since the authority wants to concentrate on persons who are really in need.

“We discovered that persons who were allocated house lots are owners of property, so we repossessed the land…the condition of the allocation is that you should not be the owner of any property,” said Saul.

Although some lands have been repossessed, the authority is finding it difficult to identify persons who have house lots outside of the system. To improve their ability to detect persons, the CH&PA has partnered with the Deeds and Lands Registry and also the Guyana Lands and Surveys Commission (GLSC).

The authority believes it is unfair for someone, who already has property, to apply for housing because there are 25,000 applications in the system, and among those are applications from people who are really in need.

“We want to address those applications…we will be addressing those that are pre-2015, but we hope to satisfy everyone’s request,” said Saul.

The main focus of the authority is on creating housing solutions. Their efforts to create those solutions were augmented through support from the GLSC and the National Industrial and Commercial Investments Limited (NICIL).

Saul said they recently acquired lands from NICIL and is in the process of acquiring land from the GLSC.

Lands which were made available through NICIL are in Meten-Meer-Zorg, Mon Repos, Experiment, Ordinance, Vigilance and LBI. Those lands which are yet to be acquired from GLSC are in Bartica, Amelia’s Ward, Wisroc and Kwakwani.

“We are looking mainly at housing development in those areas, but there will be industrial and commercial parks because we want to create communities that can sustain themselves,” said Saul.

During the first half of 2019, the CH&PA distributed a total of 541 house lots in Regions Two, Three, Four, Five and Nine, which represented 54.1 per cent of the target for 2019.
According to the Ministry of Finance’s mid-year report for 2019, house lots were distributed in Onderneeming, Recht Door Zee, Zeelugt, Eccles, Providence Gardens, Prospect, Mon Repos, Enmore, Culvert City and Tabatinga.

In the second half of the year, it is expected that a further 459 house lots will be allocated. Additionally the authority will develop 4,000 new house lots in 12 areas, with distribution set to commence in 2020. According to the report, the CHPA has spent just over $375 million from its allocated $1.7 billion.