14 private developers applied for land this year – Housing Minister - 400 acres allocated
By Leonard Gildarie. October 18, 2013 | By KNews | Filed Under News, Source
Some 14 private companies, following invitations from Government earlier this year, submitted proposals to acquire land to construct homes along the East Bank of Demerara.
This disclosure was made yesterday by Housing Minister, Irfaan Ali, following questions about the process used to allocate large tracts of lands to a number of private developers.
Housing Minister, Irfaan Ali
Earlier this week, the Opposition, in asking whether the process was advertised, also wanted to know how much was paid for the land and by whom.
The questions were raised by Leader of the Alliance For Change, Khemraj Ramjattan, and Member of Parliament for A Partnership For National Unity, Joseph Harmon.
Yesterday, Minister Ali, in responding, said that the companies submitting proposals include Windsor Tech. Inc, Navigant Builders Inc., Queensville Housing Development, A and R Jiwanram Printery Inc., Buddy’s Housing Development, Ray Dan Housing Enterprise, DC Construction/Comfort Sleep, Caricom General Insurance Inc., Romell Jagroop General Construction Services, Lakeville Executive Homes Inc., Mr Gentle P Elias & Mr Brian Chase, Chung’s Global Enterprise, Hi Tech Construction Inc., and Prembury Consultants T&T Ltd.
The invitations for “Expressions of Interest” would have been running since June in the state-owned Guyana Chronicle with the closing deadline for proposals on August 15 last.
The Minister explained that the deal with the private developers is but one of about seven public/private partnership arrangements that Government came up with to make home ownership easier.
“In this partnership, through public expressions of interest, private developers express their interest and are selected to develop land specifically for housing. Most of these developments target the middle-income and high-income markets.”
According to Minister Ali, the Ministry has made 400 acres on the East Bank Demerara available to private developers.
“The assertion that private developers are taking over the housing programme or are being treated preferentially is one that has no basis. As a matter of fact, the resources raised from the allocation of land are used as a tool of cross subsidisation. Cross subsidisation is a very critical tool in ensuring that there is balance in the market whereby the resources from the top end of the market are used to cushion the development of the lower end of the market.”
One of the new housing schemes under construction on the East Bank Demerara.
Ali insisted that as regards housing on the East Bank of Demerara, no observer can understand the extent of work and development that has gone towards the expansion of the East Bank Development, “unless they leave their office in Georgetown and visit these areas. Many technicians, international financial institutions, heads of government, ministers, and housing authorities in the Region and Latin America have had the cause to visit the East Bank Development to learn best practises in terms of the development of their own housing programmes.”
The first phase of development on the East Bank has a total of 1,800 acres of land.
“To date, we have developed and allocated more than 2,400 lots for commercial and residential purposes. It is in our projection to allocate another 3,100 house lots before the end of 2013.”
The East Bank Demerara development, Ali argued, is indeed a massive undertaking that has provided housing solutions for a wide stratum of stakeholders and consumers. “One need only look at the extension of the Eccles housing scheme, which is approximately 1,000 house lots. These lots were allocated two years ago and already occupancy rate has picked up tremendously to the extent of nearing 60%.”
The Opposition has said that several tracts of land between Eccles and Providence and reportedly up to Little Diamond have been granted to private developers.
