As Housing Ministry develops more expensive schemes, fraudulent sales remain a huge challenge

The Ministry of Housing and Water is spending much more to develop new areas to meet the mammoth demand for housing solutions locally, subject Minister Collin Croal said on Monday.

Croal, while addressing the second ‘Dream Realised’ house lot distribution exercise for the East Coast Demerara (ECD) this year, said his ministry is developing new housing areas in more inland spaces along the coast.

These areas are either covered in thick bushes and other vegetation or are swampy lands, near water conservancies.

Because of these features, Croal explained it is much more expensive to develop the lands into spaces fit for new residential occupancy.

He also noted that the Housing Ministry, through the Central Housing and Planning Authority (CH&PA), has to develop these areas and find more like it to meet the growing demand for housing locally.

“The work continues for us to acquire new lands.

“This year alone, our focus will be on Regions One, Three, Four, Six and a portion in Five. Areas in Regions 10 and Seven have already been identified, so those will be our focus regions,” Croal told the allottees gathered at the Arthur Chung COnference Centre at Liliendaal, Georgetown, on Monday.

He also highlighted that about $36 billion have been allocated to develop new housing areas this year alone.

Despite his ministry’s efforts to rapidly develop housing areas to meet the local demand, Croal lamented the growing number of fraudulent sales of house lots and houses.

“We still continue to receive reports of unscrupulous persons and unfortunately, people like yourselves continue to fall prey,” Croal told the gathering.

With the ministry seeking to combat fraud in the housing sector, Croal urged affected persons to report such transactions and then work alongside the local authorities to ensure the perpetrators are brought to justice.

If affected persons do not cooperate, he said it is difficult for the authorities to control the issues.