$200B injected towards housing infrastructure over last four years – Jagdeo

From 2020 to 2024, an impressive $200 billion has been allocated to bolster housing infrastructure development as part of the government’s initiative to ensure homeownership for every Guyanese.

General Secretary of the People’s Progressive Party (PPP), Dr Bharrat Jagdeo, addressed criticisms from Opposition Parliamentarian Annette Ferguson on Thursday, emphasising the government’s strong focus on expanding housing infrastructure.

According to general secretary, this starkly contrasts the poor track record of the APNU/AFC in this sector during its tenure, boasting that the administration is well on its way to delivering on its promise of delivering 50,000 house lots by 2025.

“In our manifesto, we said we want to in five years do 50,000 house lots. We have completed 33,000 of those, and they’re now awarding contracts to complete probably another 7000 or so, hopefully before the end of the year,” he stated.

Monies were injected towards constructing proper roads in areas overgrown with trees and bushes and providing essential amenities such as water and electricity

Dr  Jagdeo used the housing Grove housing scheme on the East Bank Demerara to to strengthen his position, which he said has been transformed with the necessary infrastructure.

He then broke down the figures on how much is invested in preparing a single-house lot.

“If you take $200 billion and divide it by approximately 40,000 households, it comes to an average of about $5 million to prepare one house lot,” he explained.

The government however is selling house lots for $92,000 to $200,000 at the lower end, which is being subsidized.

Ferguson argues that with Guyana now being an oil-producing nation, house lots should be given to citizens for free; however, GS Jagdeo pointed out that this is not feasible since other sectors also need development.

A large portion of proceeds from the oil and gas industry is being used to subsidise housing and there is a need to balance these housing initiatives with running the rest of the country, Jagdeo underscored.

“People, they don’t even analyse these things, talking a lot of nonsense, emotional things in the Parliament. “Oh oil money, now we could give everybody a free house lot and free everything”. You still have to do that and run the rest of the country,” he argued.

Meanwhile, over the past three years, approximately 30,000 house lots have been distributed through the Ministry of Housing’s ‘Dream Realised’ housing drive. In Budget 2024, the government has allocated $78 billion nationwide to advance housing development, aligning with its commitment to provide affordable housing to Guyanese.