No price increase for land, housing even with economic boom

― CH&PA head assures

─ will continue subsiding for the “small man”

DPI, Guyana, Tuesday, January 21, 2020

Even as Guyana is transitioning into an oil-producing nation, Guyanese can still look forward to affordable costs for land and housing.

Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Central Housing and Planning Authority (CH&PA) Lelon Saul has assured that the agency is committed to ensuring that every Guyanese has access to affordable housing.

“The CH&PA is mandated by law to provide housing for the working class. And whatever we do, we must ensure that the solution we provide, the working class can afford. We just cannot raise prices because of economic development,” Saul said at a recent press conference.

According to the CH&PA head, “once we have poor people in this country, we must be able to provide for them. We must take that into consideration and we will continue to subsidies the cost of housing to ensure that every citizen in this country, especially the “small man” is provided with a roof over his head and … I want citizens in this country to take comfort in that,” he affirmed.

The CH&PA has been addressing the housing needs of Guyanese citizens for decades. The agency, which falls under the purview of the Ministry of Communities, ensures the divestment of government land to eligible Guyanese for residential use, the development of housing schemes and regularization and upgrade of squatter settlements, the orderly and progressive development of land, cities, towns, urban and rural areas, the provision of services (access roads, internal road networks, water distribution networks, drainage, electricity) and the collaboration with stakeholders for the development of sustainable communities.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) in 2019 had projected that Guyana in its new oil-producing status this year, will see an additional 86 percent economic growth – 14 times the projected pace of the People’s Republic of China.

While Guyana’s annual gross domestic product is $4Billion, it will expand to about $15Billion by 2024, the IMF stated.

The Ministry of the Presidency’s Department of Energy (DE) this morning announced Guyana’s first 1-million-barrel shipment of light crude. Oil tanker MV Yannis has set sail for the United States.

The release said the first lift, due to the record set from discovery to production by the operator, sets Guyana firmly on its way to becoming one of the wealthiest countries on the globe per capita, according to many industry specialists.