-during housing outreach

Hundreds of Region 6 residents benefited from a wide range of housing-related services on Saturday, when the Ministry of Housing, through the Central Housing and Planning Authority CHMPA, hosted an outreach in Corriverton.

The outreach saw a significant turnout with more than 500 residents signing Agreements of Sale for house lots allocated within the Upper Corentyne Area.

During the exercise, Minister of Housing Collin Croal underscored the massive housing development across Region Six. As residents signed the agreements that bring them even closer to home ownership, Croal assured that government will continue investing heavily to meet the increasing demand for house lots and regularisation. 

Minister Croal committed to ensuring that beneficiaries who signed their agreements of sale will receive their certificates of title within three months once all requirements are met.

“I want to say now, because we are also putting our checking balances in-house at the Ministry, that once you sign, there should be no glitch after that and the processing of the title must be done within three months,” the minister told beneficiaries.

He revealed that over 8,000 pending housing applications in the region are expected to be cleared by the end of the year, a move he says will significantly reduce the backlog and provide relief to thousands of applicants. 

Meanwhile, Minister within the Ministry of Housing Vanessa Benn noted that the $159.4 billion allocated to the housing sector in this year’s national budget will support continued expansion of the housing schemes. It will also go towards infrastructure works and improve the service delivery across the country.

“Within the housing sector alone, the construction sector, that grew last year by over 25 per cent. The more and more these things happen, more people are making blocks, more people are providing stone, more people are providing sand, working as laborers, being contractors, drawing plans,” she said. “And so we cannot just look at an event like this and just think it is an opportunity for you to be able to get your title or be able to be allocated, but see that it is an activity that provides work. It helps to support persons to put food on the table for their families. And overall, every time, it helps your country to grow and it helps your family to improve.”

Residents also had the opportunity to process certificates of title and transports, as well as uplift steel and cement subsidy vouchers, initiatives aimed at supporting construction and accelerating housing development. Several beneficiaries expressed gratitude for the opportunity, describing the signing of their agreements of sale as a major milestone in their journey toward owning their own homes.

Stephone Joseph told NCN that the house lot provided by the ministry has empowered him with the tools to become independent.

“It’s been really good for me as a young man, you know, that you start working and you apply for land and things, because when you get a family, you need a land. I feel really happy that I can own a house lot now of my own, and I want to thank the government for giving me a house lot,” Joseph said.

The outreach forms part of government’s ongoing drive to make housing more accessible and affordable for Guyanese.