IMAGINE the joy of owning a home for the first time after spending years living in a rented home. This is the case of thousands of Guyanese who became first-time homeowners and who can now proudly turn the keys to a home they can now proudly call their own because of the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) government.

No wonder the recipients of the homes have nothing but praise for the Ministry of Housing and the PPP/C administration for making the homes available to them.
Housing Minister Collin Croal has said that the aim is to ensure that there is a housing programme that responds to the housing needs of every Guyanese — lower, moderate, middle and young professionals, as well as vulnerable groups.

Not only is the government building homes and providing lands for those categories of Guyanese, but several measures were also implemented that will allow beneficiaries to have easy access to funding to purchase and construct those homes.

Interestingly, construction of the homes started under a previous PPP/C administration but was halted after the APNU+AFC came to power in May 2015. As to why a project intended to address the housing needs of young people was aborted by the previous Granger administration is at best puzzling, but it does raise some serious questions regarding the commitment of the then regime to address the housing needs of the Guyanese people and young people in particular.

In fact, housing had never been a priority under the PNC regime, which ignored the housing concerns of the Guyanese people over the nearly three decades of undemocratic rule, resulting in a huge backlog of unmet housing needs. Many people had no choice but to squat on state lands. Sophia was one such squatting area which was only regularised after the PPP/C came to power in October 1992. Thousands of Guyanese were given house lots by the PPP/C administration in housing schemes all over the country and thousands more are being provided with house lots under the current administration every day.

The joy of ownership is not limited only to homeownership, but to other expensive consumer items such as ownership of motor vehicles. The number of young people who are today owners of vehicles have increased exponentially over the past years due to rising income levels and easier access to bank credit. The PPP/C administration has made it much easier for both home and vehicle ownership, due to a number of fiscal incentives, all of which have reduced the ‘burden’ of ownership.

Since assuming office in August 2020, the PPP/C administration has committed to delivering some 50,000 house lots within its first term in office. To fulfil that mandate, the Ministry of Housing through the Central Housing and Planning Authority has been making available thousands of house lots to all eligible Guyanese in several regions of Guyana. This is in addition to the building of core homes for low-income earners and the construction of homes for young professionals.

President, Dr Mohamed Irfaan Ali has committed himself to providing a roof over the heads of all Guyanese, but that he said must be done in an orderly manner and within the framework of the law.

“I am calling on all Guyanese of all walks of life to embrace the future with confidence that this government will deliver to you,” President Ali had said.