Guyana gov’t launches ‘1000 homes’ initiative – low-income and single parents to be main beneficiaries

The Housing Ministry, through the Central Housing and Planning Authority (CHPA), last Friday launched its ‘1000 homes’ project at the Perseverance New Housing Development, targeting single parents and low income earners.
The project was launched with support from the private sector, whose members turned out in their numbers at the event.
Delivering the feature address, President Donald Ramotar said providing easier access to housing to Guyanese remains a core objective of his government.

He underscored that while it is important to have a strong and growing economy; it is also essential to ensure that the people of the country benefit from it. He said government has recognised that access to housing is one of the main ways to make this possible and his administration has been feverishly working towards providing more housing to its people.
“The investment that we have been putting in has been big; last year alone, the investment was some Gy$3.36 billion on the East Bank of Demerara that excludes many other areas,” Ramotar said.
He stated that this is a big jump since from 2004 to 2011; government invested some Gy$ 1.38 billion. Ramotar said the project is yet another initiative by government to fulfil its 2011 manifesto promises.
He highlighted that in the manifesto, the administration had promised that it would deliver 30,000 houselots to Guyanese by 2016.
Exceeding target
“Last year in pursuit of that goal, the Central Housing and Planning Authority delivered some 7940 lots… they exceeded their target by 22 per cent… the target for last year was 6500 lots, and they also managed to process 4177, titles, which is a 12 per cent increase of the target of 4000 that they had.”
Ramotar said too that the administration has delivered on its promise to make access to finance affordable, citing government’s support of low-income housing programmes under which tax incentives are given to the banking sector to promote lending for homeowners.
In the same breath, he added that the government will continue to work with stakeholders to further improve access to financing specifically for the construction sector.
Meanwhile, Finance Minister Dr Ashni Singh said the national housing programme is an outstanding example of public policy, private sector response and household effort being brought together to develop and transform the country.
He also echoed similar sentiments as the president, stating that the government is on a vertical move to ensure that the financial sector is prepared and enthusiastic about lending for homeownership, as it is important.

Low interest rate
He said due to this, banks are able to offer lower interest rates to borrowers and potential borrowers for low-income housing developments, as a result of which millions of dollars are lent to thousands of Guyanese at subsidised rate, which they then in turn use to build their homes.
He stated that the low-income window alone has seen billions of dollars injected into the Guyanese economy.
“In the first quarter of this year alone, 366 persons accessed this facility and a total of Gy$ 690 million was disbursed under this facility alone… accumulatively at the end of March, there were 3408 borrowers from the financial system… the total amount disbursed by the banking system was Gy$ 9.3 billion,”Dr Singh said.
The finance minister added that building homes does not disappear into thin air but rather it purchases construction materials, from the business community and creates jobs, thus creating a multiplier effect.
The New Perseverance Scheme is located on East Bank Demerara, five miles from the city and will be available in two designs: low and moderate income.
The initiative was launched under the theme “Transforming the dream of homeownership into a reality: Home ownership made easier”. Within six months, the area is expected to be transformed with 1000 homes, adding to the “turn key” initiative which started in 2011, to boost the housing sector. The New Building Society has been a key partner since then.