Minister of Housing Collin Croal says while Guyana’s ambitious housing expansion program may appear to be moving slowly, major preparatory works are actively underway behind the scenes to support large-scale development across the country.
He explained that the government is currently focused on critical infrastructure works, including roads, utilities, and land preparation, which are necessary before large-scale housing construction can accelerate.
“It may seem to be off a slow start, so I’ve heard the comments, but very confident, we’ll have the first set of houses already rolling out,” he said.
Croal said the ministry is exploring prefabricated and modular housing systems to speed up delivery of its 40,000-home manifesto promise.
“We have already ongoing, as per the norm, we still are constructing as per the norm with our normal contractors that are involved, but in a massive way in which you are referring to, we are doing the preparatory work. You have to incorporate prefab modular type of houses that will allow you the rate of production for assembly, et cetera. We are extremely confident of that, and a lot of persons have not been hearing much as yet, and that is because to do this, we have to do the preparatory work,” the minister explained.
Meanwhile, the housing ministry continues to work on one of its flagship initiatives at Silica City. Some 110 homes have been completed, with phase two underway. The minister added that additional townhouse and condominium projects aimed at young professionals are also being finalised as part of the broader housing transformation agenda.
“The infrastructure work, the access road is ongoing as I speak. We have construction of other houses [which] will continue. We have, right now we’re finalising, so I don’t want to speak much on it, but right now we’re finalising for the building out of some additional young professional houses as part of the phase one and into phase two, as well that will cater for condominiums as well as townhouses,” Minister Croal disclosed.