THREE weeks after 200 families were allocated house lots, the Ministry of Housing and Water returned to Region Three on Friday and distributed 1,200 lots under its flagship ‘Dream Realised’ housing initiative.
The exercise took place at the Uitvlugt/Leonora Development Centre Ground and saw scores of persons in attendance.

The lots that were allocated are located in Meten-Meer-Zorg and Stewartville.
While delivering feature remarks at the opening ceremony for the housing drive, Minister of Housing and Water, Collin Croal, noted that the activity signals the ministry’s second major focus for the region this year.
He said that while there were similar allocation exercises for the region during the recently concluded International Housing Expo, this can be considered a continuation of same.

“This therefore will serve for us to further reduce the pending applications that were just alluded to,” he said adding that as government works to clear the backlog of applications, there has also been renewed interest from new applicants.

The minister had said earlier this month that Region Three has approximately 14,000 pending land applications.
Minister Croal, in his comments, emphasised that over the past two years, some 3,265 house lots have been allocated, a figure which far exceeds the just over 400 allocations that were made under the previous administration.

This exercise did not come without its challenges, he said as he mentioned that with the current plans for the Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuCo) and competing interest, it was difficult to find land for housing.
However, following consultations with the relevant stakeholders, an additional 1,400 acres of land were identified and this is what made the allocation exercise possible.

The minister noted that this exercise is part the government’s plan to ensure that the backlog of housing applications is cleared.
Meanwhile, Minister within the Ministry of Housing and Water, Susan Rodrigues said that the ministry is always excited to reduce its deficit within the housing sector and more specifically in Region Three which has the second highest demand for housing in the country.

Rodrigues told those gathered that the ministry welcomes new applications for houses and house lots as they are continuously in pursuit of the target of distributing some 50,000 house lots during the government’s first term in office.

“We do welcome the new applications and we have all of our housing services here… and we especially like to support our young people to ensure that they realise their dreams,” she said.
To this end, the minister added that while house lots are being allocated, there will also be an aggressive housing construction drive which will see hundreds of houses being constructed in the region. She said that the government believes that such a drive is one of the ways to assist in getting persons into their own homes.

“We want you to be able to utilise your house lots in the most productive way possible. We want to help you to get your title. We want to help you to access a mortgage from the banks,” she said.
Subsequently, the two ministers distributed the lots to those who were present.

On September 2, 2022, some 200 house lots in Stewartville and Meten-Meer-Zorg were distributed during an outreach at the West Demerara Secondary School.
The minister had indicated on that occasion that approximately $3.4 billion is being expended on infrastructure development at five new housing developments in the region, namely: Cornelia Ida, Anna Catherina, Edinburg, Meten-Meer-Zorg, and Stewartville. The works include the installation of water supply networks and the construction of access roads, bridges, culverts and drainage networks.
Since taking office, the ministry has distributed over 15, 000 house lots in various parts of the country. Many of the allottees have thanked government for ending their “long” wait.