50% land promotion scrapped; Central Housing to reimbursed monies paid

Housing Minister Colin Coral addressing West berbice Residents

Housing and Water Minister Collin Croal on Wednesday told West Berbice residents the practice of promotional land deals by the previous government which was done through the Central Housing and Planning Authority would be reversed and those who paid fifty percent of the costs for the lands will be reimbursed their monies.

Croal made the announcement during visits along the West Berbice corridor and said that the position to reverse practice was taken at the level of government.

According to the government official, there are no areas which can be readily transferred into housing schemes at this point for house lot allocations given a number of factors and those issues are being addressed.

“The decision was made across the board to have all the letters and allocations withdrawn, however, the payments that were made by persons will be refunded,” Croal assured the residents.

Back in February of this year, the Central Housing and Planning Authority offered a conditional 50% discount on house lots for persons who applied between October 01, 2019 and February 29, 2020.

The initiative was geared at allowing approximately one thousand homeowners to benefit for the promotion which carried a price tag of G$90 million.

Among the challenge with the initiative according to minister is the fact that persons were given lands in areas which have not been developed and where they may not even be able to find their house lots because access to those areas are almost impossible.

“Our decision will not take away your name from the system, that will remain there, but at this point there is no area that we can allocate house lots or no area that I can tell you infrastructure is readily available and in place, or there’s a road for you to drive and go to your land which was allocated to you, I can’t do that. There is none” Croal told the gathering

“I have some papers which they gave me, but I don’t know where the house lot is, I paid half of the money and then they asked me to pay the other half, but I didn’t due to COVID-19. So, now I just want to know if I have the house lot or not,” a west Berbice woman told the minister.

Croal stated that by early next year the government will be able to start issuing lands once again after the 2021 budget is completed. He said when lands are issued, persons will be able to access them immediately as the infrastructure will be in place.

“We have a number of models that we have applied in terms of houses, the house lots and so forth, but that’s the first stage. After that is completed, then we will issue the allocations, so that when you receive that letter you can go immediately and start building.”

The housing drive of the Ministry of Housing will cater for three broad areas, Croal noted; allocation, road networks, water and Electricity.

At the moment there are roughly 68,000 active house lot applications some dating back to the 1990s