By Pooja Rambaran
The International Building Expo 2023 was officially opened on Thursday evening giving over 300 local and international exhibitors the opportunity to display their services and products to eager homeowners.“The Building Expo is a platform on which exhibitors can showcase and create awareness about their products and services through direct engagements and interactions. It is also a great setting for the unveiling of new advances made in construction,” Housing and Water Minister Collin Croal stated.
A key component of the four-day event is an extension of the Housing Ministry’s “Dream Realised” Housing Drive in which 2000 persons within communities in Region Three (Essequibo-Island-West Demerara) and East Coast Demerara, Region Four (Demerara-Mahaica) will be allocated house lots.
Minister Croal noted that upon completion of this exercise, the total number of house lots distributed by the Ministry overall will rise to 27,000, forming part of their five-year commitment to deliver 50,000 house lots by 2025.
These “Dream Realised” exercises are only part of the Ministry’s efforts to address the housing deficit and challenges within the sector, Croal explained.
“To this day, we have engaged experts, investors, and consultants within the public and private sectors, locally and internationally. We have crafted policies that make access to finance easier and faster. We have introduced material and monetary subsidies and pursued new housing initiatives such as condominiums and townhouses. These initiatives were coupled with the introduction of new and updated legislation to strengthen the regulatory framework of the sector,” Croal said.
However, delivering the feature address, President Dr. Irfaan, who conceptualised the Expo several years ago as Housing and Water Minister, noted that the number of active housing applications stands at 57,000.
“Our plan in the next three years is to develop 14,000 new house lots in Region Three, 1000 new homes and 1000 new house lots in Region Ten (Upper Demerara-Berbice), 1000 new lots in Region Seven (Cuyuni-Mazaruni), 4000 new house lots in Region Six (East Berbice-Corentyne), 1000 in Region Five (Mahaica-Berbice), 20,000 new lots in Region Four (Demerara-Mahaica), 250 new lots in Region One (Barima-Waini) and 1000 new lots in Region Two (Pomeroon-Supenaam) and 1000 new lots in Region Nine (Upper Takutu-Upper Essequibo),” Ali said.
To this end, President Ali noted that some $170 billion will have to be expended to meet these needs.
We will need $1 billion in Region One, $4 billion in Region Two, close to $42 billion in Region Three, $80 billion in Region Four, $4 billion in Region Five, $16 billion in Region Six, $4 billion in Region Seven, $3 billion in Region Nine and $15 billion in Region Ten.”
He added that in 2015, the total capital budget for the entire Government was $39 billion. In 2020, it was $72 billion. To meet the demand for housing and water alone [currently] requires $170 billion. That is more than the entire capital budget in 2015 and 2020,” Ali said.
“That is the scale of development that is ahead of us. That is the level of investment that the Government must find to deliver house lots to all applicants,” Ali added.
Despite these efforts, however, he explained that given the current challenges concerning the availability of land, almost 13,000 applicants will still not be covered.
To this, he pleaded for the patience of the Guyanese in securing access to their lands and new homes.
In gaining this access, he further explained that investments are also being made to build new highways and roadways across the country.
“We will have to develop 200km of new four-lane highways and that is in the immediate to the medium term. That is about $400 billion in this one project alone,” Ali said.
Furthermore, he highlighted that $500 million in supplementary costs is also being used towards building structures for migrants who are squatting in sea defences and other areas.
On the other hand, the President noted that there are almost 175 proposals for industrial lots and 416 proposals for commercial lots, requesting a varying number of acres of land.
“The reality is that we don’t have enough land to build the system now to service even 50 per cent of the demand for industrial lots and commercial lots,” Ali said. “It will take some more time to open up land and opportunities.”
He explained that the Government is looking to ramp up the availability of commercial and industrial spaces, by looking at industrial and commercial zones in areas including Wales, Enmore, La Bonne Intention (LBI), Belvedere and Lethem.
The International Building Expo will continue until Sunday at the National Stadium in Providence, East Bank Demerara (EBD), free of cost to children and at a $500 entry fee for adults.
