Gov’t ready to kick-start housing drive

The Ministry of Housing and Water is working with the National Industrial and Commercial Investments Ltd. (NICIL), Guyana Sugar Corporation Inc. (GuySuCo) and Guyana Lands and Surveys Commission (GLSC) to boost Guyana’s housing sector.

Minister, Collin Croal, told DPI on Friday that several areas have already been identified for land acquisition in some regions with funds available from last month’s Emergency Budget.

Minister Croal reminded Guyanese that despite a system backlog, “your government is working every single day to ensure that we put the necessary infrastructure in place to commence our new allocations for a number of regions.”

“Immediately, that will include Regions Three and Four while we acquire lands for some of the other regions including Region Two,” Minister Croal added.

The 2020 work programme offsets significant plans for the 2021 budget and the Minister further assured citizens that an aggressive allocation process would commence in the not too distant future. 

“[In]2021 you can look forward to a massive programme by our Ministry,” Minister Croal said while noting that land preparation in key areas will begin in the same year. 

Additionally, the Ministry recently published an Expression of Interest (EOI) for a private-public partnership to construct housing units, which has received much traction from investors.

“That Expression of Interest, of course, is closed. In fact, they are finalising the evaluation and very shortly we will have shortlisting for those contractors whom our developers would be engaging for the construction of our initial first set of houses,” the Housing Minister said.

The initiative will help stimulate the economy and foster employment in a range of sectors.

The Government’s removal of taxes from construction materials will also make it easier for many citizens to become homeowners at a cheaper cost.

Also complementing the housing sector for massive development in 2020 and the coming years is the raising of the low-income threshold for corporate tax relief from $8million to $10million and the reverting of the income tax relief ceiling from $15 million to $30 million.