75% of new house lot applicants are young people – Minister Rodrigues

The Central Housing and Planning Authority (CH&PA) has seen an influx of house lot applications since the new government assumed office in August 2020.

For 2021 alone, more than 5,000 Guyanese interested in owning their own homes, have sent in applications; 75% of them are of the youth population.

This was revealed by Minister within the Ministry of Housing and Water, Susan Rodrigues, during an interview with the News Room on Friday.

“For this year alone, 2021, we have seen 5,000 new applicants in our system, and 75% of that are applicants between the ages of 21 and 39 years,” she told the News Room.

The minister explained that the government’s priority when it assumed office was to clear the backlog of 70,000 applications left by the previous administration. In doing so, approximately 4,000 allocations have made.

“This was mainly focused on the old applicants…those who slipped through the system somehow,” the minister explained.

As the backlog got cleared, Rodrigues said that there was a rejuvenation of the housing sector with heavy interest from Guyana’s youth population.

“We are very encouraged by that, a large percentage of that is women so we are very satisfied.

“It’s very pleasing because I see that as confidence in our administration to be able to deliver on behalf of young people.”

Minister Rodrigues outlined that the government has been working to find new lands for housing to address to the influx of applications.

Already, she said the Ministry is in talks with the Mahaica-Mahaicony Agricultural Development Authority (MMA-ADA) to source lands in Region Five.

That area, she disclosed currently has a backlog of 3,500 applicants in the system.

Further, new areas are also being identified in Regions Three, Four, and Ten.