–as gov’t continues to address housing demands

THE government is intensifying its push to meet housing demands with a new housing development site earmarked at Hauraruni, along the Soesdyke-Linden Highway.
The area has been selected to facilitate the construction of homes targeted at young professionals, as part of a broader strategy to meet the demand for housing.

During a site visit on Sunday, Housing and Water Minister, Collin Croal, highlighted the growing challenge of land availability within the region. He noted that traditional housing areas in region four on the East Coast and East Bank have reached their limits.

“This area has been identified for the construction of young professional-type houses and the point here is that everybody has been asking for land in region four.  And there is only so much land that has been available; we have already reached the point of conservancy,” Croal told reporters.
The current phase of the project at Hauraruni includes the development of over 400 homes. Significant progress has already been made, with extensive land preparation works completed. Internal roads have been laid out, with loam already in place and contractors now progressing to the crush and run phase.
This stage is being managed by four contractors, with the overall infrastructure works valued at $1.4 billion.
“This week the project team will be going out for expression of interest for persons to respond for construction. We are not looking locally alone; we are going further afield, because we want to first of all maximise those contractors we have logically for the construction of the houses and then bring in others who will be able to keep at our price,” he explained.
Minister Croal indicated that the project is part of the government’s core housing mandate for the current term, with a strong emphasis on accelerating the delivery of homes to meet national targets.

“We are currently going through in-house on how we will be able to that; identification of land is an important aspect to achieve that objective and the shift and the movement to Soesdyke highway is one such engagement; we are also looking at other areas for future development for housing.”
The Ministry is also opening up opportunities to international builders to maintain competitive pricing and enhance construction capacity.
The government is looking to construct 30,000 new homes within the next five years; this project is expected to be among several to meet this demand.
President Dr. Irfaan Ali had previously stated that it will build on the country’s already thriving momentum, creating some 150,000 jobs and pumping over $450 billion into the economy.
“We are calculating at a minimum of 30,000 new homes being constructed in the next five years. That is delivering in a country of Guyana, 16 homes per day in the next five years,” the president said last month at opening of the 2025 International Building Expo.
There he had explained the government will adapt its policies to ensure incentives, making the process of landownership to building homes much easier for families.
There are just about 80,000 applications in the system to be processed; the government will be required to develop 20,000 acres of land, an investment of more than $420 billion.