Gov’t on course to deliver 50 thousand house lots by 2025

The government has invested approximately 30 per cent of the oil revenue in the rapidly expanding housing sector, remaining on the course to meet its delivery of fifty thousand house lots by 2025.

This was revealed by the General Secretary of the People’s Progressive Party (PPP) Dr Bharrat Jagdeo during his weekly press conference on Thursday held at Freedom House, Georgetown.

“We are now spending 200 billion dollars on developing 40 thousand house lots. We promised 50 thousand house lots hopefully and we will get to 40 thousand by the end of this year. We promised 50 thousand new house lots…in our five-year term. We are on course to deliver on that promise,” Dr Jagdeo stated.

He noted that the $200 billion spent in this sector is equivalent to about 30 per cent of all the oil money spent so far.

The general secretary noted that Guyana has veritably become a construction site, which did not happen by chance but by the deliberate strategy of the PPP/C government which remained consistent with its campaign promise.

“Every single Guyanese, regardless of who they voted for their race or their religion, every adult Guyanese now has the possibility if they have not owned a home as yet, of owning one, and this will not happen under any other government, our history bears this out,” the general secretary noted.

 According to Dr Jagdeo, the changes started when the government was in office before 2015 with changes in the housing landscape of Guyana, and again with their return massive changes are taking place.

“So, for those who believe that they are not benefitting from the oil resources, this is how it gets transferred to our people,” he stated.

He noted that it takes about $5 million to develop a house lot and to put in the infrastructure. These house lots are sold somewhere between $150,000 -$200, 000 to $2.5 million, a highly subsidised rate.

Dr Jagdeo noted that most house lots are sold at the low-income level for less than $200,000.

“We have been building core homes, we have been building young professional homes. So, it’s not just the land. It’s also getting people to own homes through government initiatives,” he stated.

He also noted the subsidies for low-income construction with cement and steel initiatives.

In addition, incentives were given to banks to help lower mortgage rates while many of the taxes have been removed from building materials.

“We have been upgrading quite a few community roads. Over three thousand community roads in housing areas have been upgraded. We have provided incentives to builders we have passed the local content law that allowed a whole part of the construction for apartment buildings and homes to be rented to foreigners…so that the Guyanese and only Guyanese can benefit from this lucrative opportunity of renting their properties to foreigners4 working in the oil and gas industry,” Dr Jagdeo stated.

Dr Jagdeo said that this is one way, the government is giving back and investing in people.