ADDITIONAL lands are being acquired in various regions to match the aggressive housing drive as the government is dedicated to making affordable home-ownership possible for all Guyanese.

Minister of Housing, Collin Croal, made these remarks during his feature address on Monday at the ‘Dream Realised’ housing drive, where around 800 house lots were distributed along the East Coast of Demerara corridor.

The housing drive was held at the Arthur Chung Conference Centre (ACCC) under the Ministry of Housing and Water’s Central Housing and Planning Authority (CH&PA).

According to Minister Croal: “And if you notice, the recent allocations for region four have all been [an] East Coast Demerara allocation,” underlining that: “The work continues as we move towards our overall target of 50,000 [house lots].”

Disclosing that the Ministry is working effortlessly to make home-ownership a reality for all Guyanese, the Minister stated: “The work for us continues for us to acquire new lands,” adding that: “This year alone, our focus will have Regions Four, Three, One, Six and a portion in Five. [Region] 10 has already been identified. Region Seven has already been identified.”

While underlining that the aforementioned regions will receive the spotlight in order for the Ministry to achieve their goal, Croal revealed: “But it’s not an easy exercise because the resources that are now required to develop these lands are much more costly.”

Owing to the increased cost per lot, the senior government official remarked that this results from the Housing Ministry having to move inwards in order to find land.

“As we keep going inwards, it means we’re going closer to conservancy,” Minister Croal said, emphasising that the proprietary work required for the lands is much more when compared to the lands on the Coast.

The Minister further stated that because of this, citizens would notice an increase cost.

He then said: “Right now we have contracts for the development of new areas. If you take out the four lane roads, we have contracts that are signed to at least about $36billion dollars for development of new infrastructure, new areas for persons like yourselves.”

Meanwhile, Minister within the Ministry of Housing, Susan Rodrigues, during her remarks elaborated on the tremendous investments being pumped into the housing sector by the People’s Progressive Party (PPP) administration.

She said that the party has already achieved its manifesto promise of providing affordable housing with 10,000 house lots being distributed annually, but according to Minister Rodrigues, the efforts will not stop there.

Stressing that her government is always striving to make home ownership a reality for all Guyanese from different walks of life, Minister Rodrigues remarked: “Of course, it is easy for us to tick a box and say that we have delivered our manifesto commitment of 50,000 house lots.”

In addition to this, she noted that the PPP administration aims to provide not only a home but also an environment that the owners and their families can feel safe in. The Minister said that her government is one that empowers the people and not one that keeps them down.

Apart from the aggressive housing drive, she also mentioned that the massive infrastructural works along with job creation are byproducts of it and therefore, East Coast residents will surely feel the positives from the large scale investments that help to stimulate the economy