–President Ali says commercial district, professional residential area also on the cards for Leonora

SOME 7,000 house lots are being developed in Region Three (Essequibo Islands-West Demerara), as part of the PPP/C government’s drive to provide 50,000 house lots to Guyanese by the year 2025.

President, Dr Irfaan Ali, while conducting a walkthrough of the new West Central Mall under construction at Leonora, West Coast Demerara, said the first phase of the project has been awarded and infrastructural works have commenced.

“If you look at what is known as ‘punt trench’ or where the high bridge is, all the way back and all the way to the tower, all of those lands will be converted into housing…as you can see there the excavators are working,” President Ali said, while pointing to the area that is being developed.

This new housing development, the Head of State said, will take place in the vicinity of the planned thoroughfare from Schoonord to Parika.
In light of the rapid pace of development in the Essequibo Islands-West Demerara region, the President also spoke of plans for a commercial district in Leonora, along with a professional residential area.

“So that gives you a bearing on what is going to occur here in the terms of development… every single area in the country, we are developing these growth hubs, to span out development, to expand the development reach,” Dr Ali said.

The development of lands in the region will help to address the backlog of 14,000 applications for Region Three, currently sitting in the database of the Housing Ministry’s Central Housing and Planning Authority (CH&PA) awaiting allocation.

“In this NDC [Stewartville/Cornelia Ida] alone, we are talking about the development in this area here alone, about 1,500 acres of land; 1,500 acres of land would give us here and there, 7,000 new house lots,” President Ali had said during a prior engagement.

The infrastructure costs, on average, to develop 1,500 acres of land is close to $10 billion, the Head of State said.
“…and this is not 10 years from now, these are projects that are in the immediate pipeline, projects that have already started,” Dr Ali said.

He added: “In the medium term, if you have an occupancy of 50 per cent in five to seven years, then convert 3,500 [50 per cent of 7,000] by an average of $7 million and you will see the volume of transaction[s] that we’re talking about just in this locality.”

Additionally, under the government’s turn-key initiative, some 200 housing units are expected to be constructed in Anna Catherina and Meten-Meer-Zorg, targeting low and moderate-income earners.
Further, under the Inter-American Development (IDB) funded Adequate Housing and Urban Accessibility Programme, 25 core homes have been constructed for vulnerable families in Lust-en-Rust, Onderneeming, La Parfaite Harmonie, Recht-Door-Zee and Westminster. Those new developments, President Ali said, will be complemented by a $52 billion (US$260 million) new Demerara Harbour Bridge.

In May, Housing and Water Minister Collin Croal has announced that as the ministry’s 2022 allocation drive continues, some 15,000 applicants will be served.
“Our President has given a charge to aim for 25,000 homes over the five-year period, and so, while we will allocate 50,000 house lots, simultaneously we will be constructing houses,” Minister Croal said.

In keeping with its manifesto, the PPP/C government is committed to delivering 50,000 house lots to Guyanese within its first term in office. In 2021, the government surpassed its target of distributing 10,000 house lots to Guyanese through its signature “Dream Realised” house lot distribution exercise.