Dear Editor,
If I were the Government of Guyana, I would do an amnesty and give the 25,000 waiting applicants their house lots with free and clear titles, with an agreement that there will be added to their yearly land taxes, a percentage of the cost for the land.
The free and clear titles would mean that they could go straight to the banks and lending institutions and borrow and begin building. This would immediately create a hive of activity in the housing market which would cause an automatic renewed vigour in this fledgling economy.
I would use the first block of available lands on the Linden Highway. This would create an immediate sprawling village and the law of supply and demand will cause transportation, shops, and other goods and services to become immediately available. The soon-to-be-completed four-lane East Bank project, coupled with the construction of the newly-funded Diamond/Ogle bypass, will make travelling to the Linden Highway less time consuming.
This housing development would be monitored closely. If anyone breaches the agreement and sells their land in less than the stipulated allotted time, and the breach is found out, the buyer will lose their investment, including whatever property in on the land, and the seller will be charged with an offence.
The monies needed for the initial infrastructural developments will come from the billions of dollars that the CH&PA has sitting on the banks. If needs be, a loan from the international lending agencies can be obtained.
It’s time we engage some out of the box thinking. Guyana has too much land for there to be 25,000 potential home owners waiting….indefinitely.
Yours faithfully,
Pastor Wendell P. Jeffrey
Practical Christianity Ministries