Private developers who have been negligent with honouring their obligations to the Central Housing and Planning Authority (CH&PA) may have their lands repossessed if they remain non-compliant to their agreements of sale, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Lelon Saul has said.
Speaking at a press briefing on Monday last, he stated that private developers are being encouraged to live up to their agreements of sale, and if not, it was likely that moves would be made for those lands to be repossessed.
“I can tell you that I would have instructed our corporate secretary… to initiate action, in some cases to repossess land from private developers who have failed to deliver,” Saul said.
“Those lands that you see in those schemes like Parfait Harmonie, most of them are titled land and it’s not easy to dispossess someone of their property. In relation to the developers, many of them still owe this agency money and that is why it would be easier for us to repossess the land.”
Saul was responding to concerns raised about the availability of land for housing development.
In a press release from the agency, it was noted that it was “unfair” that the CH&PA has applicants in the system awaiting allocations, some of them for more than a decade, while some private developers are owners of large portions of land that could otherwise be distributed.
“The agency notes the concerns of some individuals in relation to our attempts to repossess lands. However, we would like to assure individual allottees, that once you are compliant with the policies of the agency then you have nothing to fear,” the statement said.
CH&PA’s Operations Director Denise King-Tudor, stated that of the 2,000-unit target for the Housing Solutions Programme, 355 have been achieved to date, including those units available at the Perseverance Scheme.
Tudor related that the plan was to construct 758 units this year, and that once the rate of production is increased the target can be reached.
“Secondly, in terms of the distribution of titles and transports to persons who have been allocated, the target for this year was 2,000 and we have almost achieved this target because 1,855 persons are already in receipt of either their title or transport,” she said.
“With respect to the Housing Solutions… the duplexes, town houses and… the range of solutions that we plan to offer to applicants who are in the process of acquiring such from us, we have received over 3,000 [applications], they have registered to be a part and to obtain solutions from us.”
Tudor said the agency is currently in the process of disaggregating the data collected during the Housing Solutions exhibition held at the Perseverance Scheme, and that information will be shared with the public when it becomes available.
CH&PA Project Manager Kennard Dazzel had stated during a tour of the Housing Solutions project in April that the Perseverance development is just one location out of ten spread across six regions in Guyana. He noted that the ministry is expected to construct a total of 758 units in Regions Two, Three, Four, Five, Six, and Ten before the end of the year.
