Low-income houses under construction at Leonora, Anna Catherina and Edinburgh on the West Coast of Demerara, will soon be move-in ready, Minister of Housing and Water Collin Croal disclosed on Monday.
The construction of the houses is part of the Government’s home construction assistance programme carried out through an agreement between the Central Housing and Planning Authority (CH&PA) and Republic Bank Limited (RBL) to construct the 500 low-income homes in Region Three. The 20 x 30 (625 square feet) two-bedroom flat units are being built at a cost of $5.5 million each.
“We have the first 154 houses that are being constructed [and] by the end of this week will be completed to be handed over,” Minister Croal said. He added that the beneficiaries
“We are happy by what we are seeing here,” he added.
The Bank’s Managing Director Stephen Grell and the Chief Executive Office at CH&PA, Sherwyn Greaves, accompanied the Minister for an inspection today. They agreed that the construction is on schedule with the first set of new homeowners expected to move in as soon as next week.
Minister Croal said that housing development provides many spin-off benefits for the suppliers of materials, the homeowners and the contractors and it adds to the economy. For this project, 12 contractors were hired and they are from within the region.
The minister said, “For the beneficiaries, a happy moment for homeownership is to allow them to have their home immediately upon completion but in addition to that, for the economy of the region.
According to the bank’s Managing Director, the beneficiaries underwent the required conditions for approval and will soon own their completed houses.
“The work is continuing at apace – which we are very happy with. We have been working with persons to ensure that they can be approved and ensure that they can get into their homes quicker and develop communities,” Grell said.
He added that the new schemes creates opportunities for businesses to consider investing in the development of the areas and the region at large.
The home construction assistance programme seeks to accelerate the government’s housing drive, while also addressing challenges faced by families who have acquired government or private lands, but are unable to build their homes, due to inaccessibility to financing, and issues with contractors.
The initiative is part of the PPP/C Government’s strategy to provide affordable housing solutions to Guyanese. Another form of support for homebuilders includes the provision of steel and one sling of cement for persons building homes valued $6 million and below. For every other category of home builders, including young professionals and those in the middle-income bracket constructing homes costing from $6 million to $25 million, government will provide two slings of cement.
