President Dr. Mohamed Irfaan Ali has unveiled a massive housing development strategy for Region Five, aiming to eliminate the current application backlog and transition thousands of residents from land ownership to home ownership over the next five years.

The head of state was at the time speaking at a land title distribution exercise at Cotton Tree on Friday, where he announced a $12 billion initiative to support 1,500 residents who currently own house lots but have not yet begun construction.

He noted that the government will partner with local banks to fast-track these owners toward residency.

“We will be hand-holding you in helping you to get loans, helping you to get your designs, and moving you towards home ownership,” President Ali said, emphasising that for these 1,500 owners, the goal is to see moderate-income homes fully constructed.

Further, to address the 3,300 pending housing applications in the region, the government is moving to acquire 2,000 acres of land in the Blairmont/Experiment area.

President Ali broke down the immense scale of the infrastructure requirements, noting that developing the land into viable house lots alone will require nearly $10 billion. Once the infrastructure is in place, the government plans to roll out several housing models.

“In this model, we want to build at least 1,000 homes through the low- and moderate-income mechanism of the ministry. And that will be an investment of $7 billion. And then we want to build 500 homes as Young Professional, which is about $15 million per home. That’s another $7.5 billion of investment. And then let us say 500 lots allocated to upper-middle-income and high-income persons, and they spend [a total of] $20 million on their home. That’s another investment of $10 billion,” the president detailed.

He further explained, “In the housing sector alone, you’re talking about investment upwards of $46 billion. That is $46 billion – to meet the existing demand and to move to home ownership – of investment in this region.”

He emphasised that this total, which combines government spending and stimulated private capital, represents an unprecedented acceleration of the national housing program.

“People thought that we went fast between 2020 and 2025,” the president remarked. “That is seven-folds what we did… seven times more investment.”

President Ali noted that these figures only account for the housing sector and do not include the significant gains expected from the region’s agricultural expansion.

This strategy aims to transform Region Five into a hub for “One Guyana” development, where infrastructure meets economic opportunity to ensure every applicant has a place to call home.