Housing is a human right, but citizens’ access to housing remains a challenge for every government around the world. Guyana has taken a different approach.

Government’s role in supporting citizens with home ownership is a welcomed intervention by the tens of thousands who have and will benefit from programmes of the Ministry of Housing and Water.

At the opening ceremony of the International Building Expo 2022 on Friday, Minister in the Ministry of Housing and Water, Susan Rodrigues, underscored that housing is part of Guyana’s goal to craft a sustainable future. The Minister of Housing, Collin Croal, for his part, reiterated the Dr Irfaan Ali-led People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) government’s goal to deliver 50,000 house lot allocations during its first term in office. Guyana’s ongoing housing programme is aggressively focused on results and increasing the standard of living of every Guyanese.

It was President Ali who, in a recent conversation while on his official visit to Washington DC to meet US officials, painted a broader picture of how Guyana’s transformation connects at every level. Every Guyanese can aspire to home ownership, the President said. But owning a home must also come with an easier life.

Already, there are interventions in the works to improve water quality and access to water across the country, reduce the energy cost by 50 per cent, and ultimately unlock further development.

Outlining Guyana’s development future, President Ali, during the broadcasted interview from the seat of government of the United States, said development in Guyana will be approached through a multi-dimensional lens. Dr Ali recognised that the country has to grow in such a way that every sector and industry is positively impacted.

This is part of the PPP/C government’s all-aboard approach to ensuring sustainability, which also includes a climate-change strategy that supports environmental sustainability while boosting national development through advanced carbon-credit partnerships.

But there is, for the sake of this editorial, a notable value to households which, the President said, will be seen in the medium term. In his keynote address at the opening ceremony of the International Building Expo 2022, Dr Ali said as part of the Vision 2030 transformation plan, changing infrastructure must be linked to human transformation and advancement, and the changing of lives of people in the country. He maintained that all of government’s interventions link back to the uplift of human life including expanded economic opportunities, and improvement of livelihood. Government’s future for Guyana is about Guyanese-centred development.

President Ali underscored access to house lots as an issue of equitable development. It is absolutely astounding that the political opposition has come out against these housing strategies, especially since the former APNU+AFC government failed to produce results for Guyanese people in the areas of housing and economic equity.

For President Ali, the vision is to ensure that communities developed must have a mix of industrial and commercial investment, alongside low to high-income housing. The goal, he noted, is value transfer so that there would be an improvement of the net asset value of any family in any of the housing brackets through the steady increase in their home value which would later give them a higher level of prosperity.

But this is more than just hopes and aspirations. Tangibly, the President announced a number of measures which will ease the financial burden of home construction fetched by Guyanese. Since taking office in 2020, Dr Ali’s government increased the low-income mortgage ceiling from $8 million to $15 million, increased the New Building Society Limited (NBS) loan ceiling from $12 million to $15 million, raised the ceiling on mortgage interest relief for housing loans from $15 million to $30 million, created a special facility to support landowners with getting their home construction going, removed the Value Added Tax (VAT) from a number of construction material, assisted homeowners with construction of septic tanks, and built a number of core homes. These measures must be seen as direct intentions to support Guyanese people with housing, recognising that even if government cannot do all of the work by itself, it can support in one way or the other. That is responsible planning.

Announcing a series of new measures on Friday, President Ali told the listening crowd that from the last day of the Building Expo, government will give every builder the steel and one sling of cement needed for their foundation, once the value of the home is $6 million or lower. For homes valued above that $6 million mark, the President said two slings of cement will be given. Turning his attention to commercial banks, President Ali said the banks have agreed there will be no percentage requirement for loans below $6 million once the applicant applies through government’s special home construction assistance facility. Added to that, the President said the banks have agreed to reduce the interest rates for housing loans up to $9 million, to 3.8 per cent.

Housing is about security. It is financial security as it represents a wise investment for which the value of the item will more likely increase with the right surrounding investments, and it represents mental, emotional, and psychological security as adequate housing means not having to worry about the pressures of tenancy and more opportunities for the holder of the asset to explore other advancement opportunities. Government has, thus far, made all the rights steps to ensure that issues of equity and access are addressed promptly. And that is the vision of President Ali’s One-Guyana.