House lot allottees overjoyed with ‘Dream realise’ exercise:

The ‘Dream Realise’ land allocation exercise by the Central Housing and Planning Authority (CH&PA) continued on Sunday, at the International Building Expo targeting persons in Region Three (Essequibo Island- West Demerara).

It was revealed that hundreds gathered at the housing ministry’s pavilion to receive their house lots in the high, middle and low-income categories at Stewartville, and Meten -Meer- Zorg, on the West Coast Demerara. Melissa Minty, an allottee, was one of the first persons to receive her low-income house lot after waiting for five years.  She said her case was ‘special’ due to her abysmal living condition.

“The ministry was very lenient with me to let me get my land in a speedy form and so, I’m very grateful for that,” she noted. Minty congratulated the government’s housing programme which allows all categories of persons to achieve home ownership. However, more particularly, she express happiness with President Irfaan Ali’s announcement of the provision of steel and cement for persons building homes valued $6M and below.

“Given my circumstances, I have the land, but don’t have the money to start build so with that initiative it will help me out a great lot, so that’s a very good take. They should keep up the good work they are doing,” Minty added.

Devon Brown of Wales, expressed profound gratitude to the ministry, and by extension the government, for affording him the opportunity of acquiring a house lot in his home region.

The young father disclosed that he will now be able to provide a safe and comfortable home for his family. “This is a next step forward, and I will start put things in order to set my family right,” Brown said.

Meanwhile, Samantha Ramotar was also happy with the allocation process, after many years of waiting. Once she is able to identify her lot, she said she will immediately commence the construction of her house.

“This means a lot. I’m so happy, owing a piece of lot that I know it will leave for my children,” Ramotar stressed.

It was revealed that the land distribution exercise started on Saturday, targeting residents on the East Coast and East Bank of Demerara. Some 1,500 residents received their lots in Plantation Great Diamond and Grove-Diamond, Non-Pariel and Enterprise.

Additionally, it was noted that over 500 titles/transport were also distributed over the past two days, with an additional 500 expected to be given out by the end of the expo.

Meanwhile, CH&PA’s Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Sherwyn Greaves disclosed that persons who did not get the chance to visit the location to uplift their transport or title, could do so on Monday.

Greaves revealed that that 15,000 people visited the Expo on Saturday alone. Apart from visiting the booths, persons are flocking the model houses and expressing interest in the units.

Further, the distribution of the 5,000 house lots at building expo, will add to the close to 12,000 already distributed. The minister said that it will take it to over 17,000 since the government took office in August 2020.

Croal had said the intention is to distribute 22,000 lots to Guyanese by the end of 2022. The minister added that it will bring the government closer to achieving its goal of distributing 50,000 house lots by the end of the year 2025.