-by Kyler Rollins

The housing drive in Region Six, particularly the Young Professional Homes, is advancing rapidly, with billions of dollars being injected to accelerate homeownership for allottees in several new areas.

Their options will include modular, prefabricated and elevated housing models.

During an interview with reporters on the sidelines of a Corriverton housing outreach on Saturday, Minister of Housing, Collin Croal, disclosed that the government is aggressively developing infrastructure to ensure allottees can soon identify and access their respective house lots.

He noted that the government’s priority extends beyond the allocation of house lots to the actual construction of homes, with full supporting infrastructure and utilities in place.

In Palmyra, 100 three-bedroom homes are nearing completion, while an additional 100 young professionals homes are approximately 45% complete. Close to $9 billion is being invested to develop the necessary infrastructure to support these housing schemes.

He meanwhile spoke of the progress on house lot allocations in Overwinning, Glasgow and Providence, where infrastructure works are progressing rapidly so that allottees can access their plots this year.

“The reality is we’re working to bridge that gap, sometimes the waiting period. And we’re starting from somewhere because we have to be mindful of at one time what our country was like. We didn’t have resources to do the necessary infrastructure. There’s a demand for house lots so you would’ve had house lots being allocated the year before, the infrastructure work being done the year before and then that would take a period of time. So, we’re working to bridge that gap that even in the same year when you have the allocations happening you also have the infrastructure done for the area,” the minister told reporters.

At the Hogstye area, infrastructure works are approximately 98% complete, with Croal committing to have the allottees identify more than 300 house lots by March.

A further 241 residents were allocated house lots at the Moleson Creek Housing Scheme, moving them one step closer to realizing homeownership.

And in Region 5, the Minister announced that pending applicants can anticipate the allocation of house lots later this year.

“We have just gotten some approval for lands. They’re going through the design phase. And I can tell you one time its right in the proximity of Experiment but you’re going inwards, right. That’s reality. The front lands are all allocated. So, we will be having allocation exercises in Region 5 this year. It a high priority once they are ready to do this because in the last three years, per say, we have not done anything major in terms of allocation for Region 5…And we have now in the new areas, we’re setting aside blocks for construction of houses in every one of the new areas that are coming on stream,” he explained.

Between 2020 and 2025, approximately 1,900 house lots were distributed to residents in Balthyock, Shieldstown, Experiment and Burma, Region 5.

For this year, a total of $159.4 billion has been allocated to support continued housing development across the country. This is with the aim of meeting the target to construct 40,000 house within five years.