Govt designing housing scheme for remigrants, retirees

Government intendsto utilise the 2,000acres of land bought from the Guyana SugarCorporation (GuySuCo)to develop house lots intendedfor low-income families, President Bharrat Jagdeo said onMonday.The president disclosed that 10,000house lots will bespread across the landscapejust behind theProvidence Stadiumon the East Bank Demerara. He added that persons squattingclose to the CheddiJagan (Timehri)International Airportwill have to be relocated,and house lots willbe provided for thosewithout accommodationelsewhere.Housing and WaterMinister Irfaan Alinoted that a housingscheme is also being developedfor remigrantsand retirees. “We arein the design phase ofthat. As a matter offact, we have completedthe design for theEccles expansion component.”The ministryhas already advertisedfor contractors to submitbids for the commencementof infrastructuralworks, andconstruction is expectedto begin at Eccles beforethe end of the year.The project is part ofthe East Bank developmentplan, which includes public and privatehousing developers as well as a partnership between governmentand the privateschemes developers.Minister Ali said there is a continued demandfor housing, andthe ministry has exceededits target forallocation this year.“There is less rental,and more young peopleare now applying forhouse lots. As soon asthey attain the age of 21, they can apply,” thehousing minister said.There is a boom inthe housing sector; and,according to Ali, therapid pace of acquiringhome loans is largely due to government incentivesnow being offeredto commercialbanks.Minister Ali said theministry has also beenaggressively pursuingits house lots repossessionpolicy, and willcontinue to do so. “Our objective is not to takeback land, but to allocatelands and movetowards home ownership,”the housing ministersaid.However, he detailedthat there area few individuals whoabuse the system andhold on to house lots allocatedthem for “speculativepurposes”. Forthis year alone, morethan 200 cases weretaken to the courts, andlawyers for the ministryhave managed tosecure judgment in theministry’s favour. “Our lawyers prepared a lotof them, and we havegotten judgment in ourfavour from the courts;but a lot of them arestill awaiting decision.”Minister Ali stressedthat the land allocationprocess is fair, andthe repossession policywill continue to be enforced.Housing Minister Aliadded that persons whorefuse to build on plotsallotted to them, andthose who have plotsovergrown with bush,will also be charged formaintenance costs bythe ministry.