ALBOUYSTOWN STILL OFFERS BEST PROPERTY INVESTMENT IN THE CITY

SOME weeks ago, this column carried an article on Albouystown as offering the most profitable investment opportunity in the City of Georgetown and how a select group of investors are quietly buying up properties in the ward and seeing them increase in value with the passing of each month, since Albouystown properties are still available at knock-down prices. As a result of that article, several persons contacted us asking to introduce them to sellers or property agents who deal in Albouystown properties. Though we are acquainted with a few of such persons, the ethics of this column does not permit us to use it in any way which could be interpreted as advertising.

Albouystown, before the 1960s, was regarded as any other ward in the city and purchasers bought properties at market prices which obtained in other parts of the city or happily rented houses or apartments there since rentals were slightly lower than inwards, like Queenstown. Owners generally resided on their properties and this ensured that houses and the environment were well-kept. Crime was almost unknown. Albouystown produced many of the main entrepreneurs and businessmen in Guyana; many of the country’s main professionals and scholars as well as the major trade unionists and politicians. The image of Albouystown up to the 1950s was that of a quiet suburban village.

In the 1960s, racio-political conflicts were occurring in other parts of the city and country and these were brought into the ward to disturb the harmony and good fellowship which had always obtained among the various racial groups. Many of the settled inhabitants and property owners of the ward felt insecure and began to leave, renting their houses at cheap rentals. In a few years, the population of Albouystown had changed; houses and the environment were neglected; crime began to appear and by the 1970s, the ward came to be known as a “slum area” and property prices began to fall.

In the last year, property prices in Albouystown have begun to rise, but many of the older property owners are still selling their properties at very reasonable prices as compared with property prices in other wards of the city. A small group of investors are quietly taking advantage of the knock-down prices since, in a year or two, the value of their investment would be doubled or tripled. The rising value of Albouystown properties could be attributed to many reasons::
In 2020, Guyana would have become an oil and gas country and the growth rate would have leapt from four per cent to five per cent to about 86 per cent per annum. Accordingly, prices would have also moved upwards and this would be seen in property prices in Albouystown. Rentals would also go upwards
Independent of the impact of oil on property prices in Georgetown, inner-city renewal has already started and houses in Albouystown are being quietly refurbished or rebuilt; owners are again beginning to move back into their properties and slum yards are disappearing.
It has now been realised that Albouystown is within walking distance to the commercial, administrative and legal hub of the country and this, together with the fact that it is on the way to the country’s two international airports – Ogle and Cheddi Jagan – and the fact that plans are afoot to convert Independence Boulevard into a highway connecting Ogle and Saffon Street, have attracted investors who are buying up property in the ward, confident that their investment would be profitable.

Young people such as those employed in the Public Service, the Public Utilities and the commercial houses should take advantage of the opportunity of acquiring properties at very reasonable prices. Persons desirous of buying Albouystown properties should peruse the classified advertisement pages, especially the Sunday editions, to discover offerings.

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