The evolution of Guyana’s housing sector…an amazing journey

Government has worked assiduously over the past 20 years, to develop Guyana’s economic standing and, as a result, there have been sweeping developments in all the sectors of economy, particularly housing. The evolution of the housing sector has been an amazing journey, resulting in the opening up of lands in every region, and has provided the opportunity for home ownership and equity building for citizens.
“If you look at the 1980s and the early 1990s, you would see that we had nothing like a housing programme and we had an explosion of squatter settlements across the country.
Looking at the numbers, we had 86,000 persons whose lives were threatened because of the circumstances under which they were living. We have transformed that over the last two decades,” says Housing and Water Minister, Irfaan Ali.
According to him, the housing story goes beyond the allocation of house lots and tells a story of the expanding services sector.
“The Housing programme in Guyana has been a tremendous success. The allocation of house lots is the impetus for many additional transformations in the lives of individuals and, by extension, the society. In so doing, the sector itself contributes significantly to the growth of the economy.”
Testimony to the successes of the housing policies and programmes initiated under the current administration: more than 86,000 persons now own land and are able to access a loan.
These are persons who would have previously resided in squatter settlements that have now been regularised. Ninety-one percent of squatter settlements have been regularised, giving these persons the opportunity to enhance their living conditions and open up new economic frontiers.
“The infrastructure to support this is now in place; there are now better roads, schools, health centres and other such infrastructure that are all linked to national development,” says the minister.

Family life
To build on this booming sector, this year, the Housing Ministry has pledged to have a further 6500 house lots and 4000 land titles distributed, and to ensure that the vision for the sector continues to be achieved.
In addition, 200 core houses will be made available to under-privileged families, while the programme for professional groups will provide 200 teachers, nurses and policemen with fast track access to loans for home construction.
Further, there is the planned establishment of a “turnkey” housing initiative, which seeks to minimise the time taken between allocation, loan application and construction by immediately providing two-bedroom houses to an additional 80 families by the end of the year.
The motivation behind the thrust to provide 100 per cent access to housing is also linked to enhancing self-esteem and improving family life.
The ministry and the Central Housing and Planning Authority (CHPA) will continue to partner with Private Sector companies to ensure citizens move beyond allocation of lots to home ownership and agreements have been made with several companies, including Trinidad Cement Limited (TCL), Toolsie Persaud Limited (TPL) and National Hardware Limited (NHL).