Minister Croal highlights 8,578 lots allocated for 2023 alone

A TOTAL of 30,406 house lots were distributed within three years since the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) Government assumed office, according to Minister of Housing and Water Collin Croal.

For 2023, there were 8,578 residential lots allocated. These revelations were disclosed on Wednesday at the ministry’s end-of-year news conference at the Arthur Chung Conference Centre (ACCC).

Out of the 30,406 house lots allocated, 28,368 of them were residential.

According to the Housing Minister, youths and women made up a significant portion of the allottees. In fact, it was recorded that 53.3 per cent were youths. That is, 15,119 of the allottees were 35 years old or younger.

Additionally, over the last three years, there was a consistent 40 per cent allocation to women only; however, for 2023, this percentage soared to around 43 per cent.

Moreover, approximately 90 per cent of allottees were between low to moderate income.

As the government continues to pursue its promise of providing affordable housing for all, the minister remarked that there are ongoing works to establish housing areas in Regions One, Seven, Eight, Nine and 10.

Notably, in 2023, some 7,128 were distributed in Region Four. For 2023, another 1,079 lots were allocated in Region Three, 125 in Region Five, and 192 in Region Six.

PROGRESS

Meanwhile, Minister within the Ministry of Housing and Water Susan Rodrigues reflected on how far the housing sector has come when compared to under the APNU+AFC coalition government.
As the Minister spoke on the previous subpar management of the housing sector, she said during the period 2015-2020, APNU+AFC allocated only 7,534 house lots. Meaning, this was far less than what the PPP/C administration had allocated in 2023 alone.

She stated: “The housing programme under the People’s Progressive Party/Civic and the APNU+AFC Coalition is incomparable. One is riddled with failure, that is, the APNU+AFC government, and one is of remarkable success, and this is not only within the last three years under our government but from 1992 to all the way to 2015 where we were able to deliver over 100,000 house lots to the people of our country.”

“And so once we assumed office in August of 2020, there was no downtime to figure out what the policy is or what the programme will be in the next five years. We knew beforehand the commitment that we made to the public and that’s why we were able to hit the ground running…” she further remarked.

Notwithstanding this, there is a process when it comes to allocation, according to the government official. Nevertheless, the Central Housing and Planning Authority (CH&PA) and the government were able to acquire approximately 50 new housing areas.

“So far we’ve allocated about 28,368 residential lots but the inclusion of other categories… that takes us to a figure of over 30,000 house lots,” she also disclosed.

The government official then spoke on a number of policies that have been rolled out to make housing affordable for all Guyanese.

“Through the collaboration with banks, you’ll see that this has resulted in reduced interest rates at these mortgage institutions thereby giving people more access to financing and affordable financing,” she said, while emphasising that this is important since because of COVID-19 and other economic shocks, the world saw the increased interest rates, unlike Guyana.

Among other incentives, the minister also shed some light on the mortgage interest relief ceiling being raised through the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA) which paves the way for first time home owners to benefit from tax reduction on the year end income tax statements.