Some 1,000 of 15,000 house lots to be developed on the East Bank Demerara (EBD) will go towards establishing a high-end housing development at Providence for overseas-based Guyanese looking to resettle.
At the commissioning of GBTI’s Diamond EBD branch yesterday, President Bharrat Jagdeo noted that the land for the housing development has been secured from GuySuCo. “We’ve just acquired enough land here from GuySuCo to do another 15,000 house lots and it’s gonna go from Agricola all the way to…Diamond. This will all become a huge urbanised area supported by other infrastructure that you made have heard of, the four-lane road and other stuff,” Jagdeo said.
In an invited comment following the event, Housing Minister Irfaan Ali said the approximately 3,000 acres will be developed using a three-pronged method; namely, public-private partnership, a government approach and a private sector-led approach. He said the work has started with the contracts already awarded for the Eccles expansion. “Soon as the new year kicks off you’ll have the commencement of the Eccles expansion and that alone there would see development of about 250 acres of land. So, if all goes well, we should have the Eccles section of the expansion ready by the end of April, May,” he said.
Meanwhile, he said there has been a tremendous response from overseas-based Guyanese who have been applying online for lots in the special housing scheme for remigrants, with some 600 to 700 applications to date. That scheme will be located in the Providence area. “We’re putting aside a thousand lots for those persons coming back. Of course there’ll be a criteria set for the allocation of those lots. We want to also ensure that that area fits into a scheme, a more middle-to high income scheme of things,” Ali explained.
He added that there will be a development limit that will be put in place for the remigrants to ensure an influx of resources into the construction sector. He said, “The infrastructure will be of a different level because we’re catering for a higher end market so our average cost of investment per lot is about $600,000 now but that is the basic investment. That is water, electricity and loam surface road and earthen drains.”
Ali noted that the investment is expected to run higher with the cost per lot to be higher than the usual though it is still to be worked out. As it relates to eligibility, he said persons living overseas and who do not possess land locally are being encouraged to apply but they are still to work out a system which will be done when the applications are in. He said with the development of such a high end scheme will come concerns about the surroundings from the investors and this they will be addressing when they fix the criteria. “You don’t want to invest US$200,000 and you next door to a US$20,000 investment so we’re looking at the criteria to have a lower limit of the investment into the property itself so that we can maintain a certain level of standards. As soon as the budget is approved we’ll start infrastructure works and hopefully in six months we can start rolling out some lots,” he said.
Retirees
According to Ali, they expect that with each house built some US$100,000 would be spent and they are particularly interested in retirees and businesspeople. He said, “A lot of Guyanese now want to retire and come back home because the pension they get living overseas means a lot more here than back there, so that is one section of the market. The other section of the market is we have a lot of Guyanese overseas who still living over there but they have business interests here and they have been approaching the ministry a lot….”
Ali said similar schemes will be established in other areas because there has been interest in land in Linden and areas in Region 3. He added that overseas-based Guyanese in the real estate business have also been showing interest in building the houses and targeting the overseas market—a model which is popular in Caribbean islands. He added that they expect next year’s Building Expo to fuel the housing drive since there have been many expressions of interest, and particularly from Trinidadian firms. “They have a strong interest in the construction, infrastructure development that has been taking place in Guyana. A lot of them are targeting Guyana as a market for the hardware materials so we have had a lot of interest in that direction. We’ll have wide participation from across the region so I think that that will also set the stage to push this overseas housing development,” he said.
Under the private sector-led component, Ali added, they have already had some 14 expressions of interest to date from companies from Malaysia, Trinidad and Tobago, the US and Guyana. He noted, “The infrastructure will be put in place by the private sector and they will build the homes and those will be more middle to high income.”
The government will be developing lands in Eccles, Providence, Mocha and aback of Peter’s Hall. Ali said they will also be allocating land for commercial development with about 50 two-acre plots that will be set aside for job-generating activities. “For example, we have the proposal from Qualfon, we have Clear Connect, we have a new mall that is coming on stream, these are the activities that are going to generate large number of jobs so that it will support the communities as they develop,” he stated.
Meanwhile, the minister said lower and middle income housing will not be abandoned in the thrust to develop the East Bank area. “His Excellency and the ministry have been engaging squatters from various areas, East Ruimveldt for example, Container City, so part of the whole development plan would entail the relocation of a number of these persons who are willing to move,” he said.
Earlier this month, the Ministry of Housing and Water advertised for expressions of interest for housing development in the area comprising Eccles to Mocha on the East Bank of Demerara.
In an advertisement in the Mirror newspaper, the ministry said it was expanding its housing development programme between Eccles and Mocha. It envisaged a combination of public/private partnership, private developers and the government.
The advertisement said that the area comprised land bounded by the settlements of Agricola to the north and Herstelling to the south. It said that to the west of the area were the existing built-up communities of Eccles, Peters Hall and Providence. It added that the area had a projected population of 36,000 and that utility services would be provided.
Construction was expected to commence in six months and to be completed in 24 months. Questions continue to be asked of the Ministry about how land at Sparendaam on the East Coast of Demerara was transformed for housing purposes and allocated to a bevy of top government officials. The scheme has been dubbed Pradoville 2. Government officials have been mum on it.
