Thousands of acres of land being identified to address East Coast housing needs – Minister Croal

The Ministry of Housing and Water’s- Central Housing and Planning Authority (CH&PA) is in the process of identifying thousands of acres of land to meet the housing needs of residents along the East Coast of Demerara.

Minister, Collin Croal, M.P said the acquisition of land for serviced house lots is being done in collaboration with the Guyana Lands and Surveys Commission (GLSC), and the Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuCo).

The minister was at the time responding to questions raised by residents of Buxton regarding house lot allocations, during a ministerial outreach at the Buxton-Friendship community ground on Monday.

“It’s not that we haven’t been allocating, but we have to allocate in the macro context of achieving 50,000…we have thousands of acres that will be available for future allocations on the East Coast starting as early as next month,” he explained.

He however, reminded the gathering that when the administration took office, it found 70,000 pending applicants in the system. That number has increased to 83,000 to date, despite the administration has allocated more than 11,000 house lots since assuming office.

Minister Croal noted that along the East Coast alone, 2,600 house lots were allocated in under 18 months. These allocations were made at Bladen Hall, Strathspey, Vigilance, and La Reconnaissance housing developments.

For persons in Buxton and surrounding communities who have pending applications, Minister Croal assured that they will be updated soonest on the process.

“We will do our follow–up, and everybody will be contacted following this meeting…I can assure you that everybody will receive their house lots, we just ask for your patience.”   Minister Croal also spoke of the job opportunities that will be derived from the housing development on the East Coast, noting that a number of residents of Buxton are currently employed under various infrastructure projects being executed by the housing ministry on that corridor, as well as on the East Bank.