Addressing residents of Melanie, East Coast Demerara (ECD), on Sunday, APNU Presidential Candidate Aubrey Norton promised to unlock lands for housing for citizens.
He promised interregional highways to link Guyana’s vast regions, open up affordable housing lands, and to train contractors from all ethnic backgrounds to ensure quality public works.
“We believe that there is enough land in this country for all Guyanese. And we want to guarantee you, as we work on those intra-regional highways, we will not only open land for you, but we will open land for you that are cheap.”
“Guyana has 83,000 square miles of land—why are our people still landless?” he asked.
Norton also pledged to deliver on a rent-to-own programme.
But during a recent press conference, Norton offered vague explanations as to how an APNU government would roll out such an initiative.
He was pressed for key details about the programme such as the projected cost of the homes, repayment periods, the consequences of payment default, and whether the government would bear the burden of legal enforcement.
“I am optimistic we will put mechanisms in place to ensure that the people who obtain those houses can afford to pay for them,” Norton rationalised.
Under the current PPP/C administration, over 50,000 house lots have been distributed countrywide – a fulfilment of the party’s manifesto promise in 2020.
For the next five years, the PPP/C has committed to building on the success of its housing programme, to ensure every Guyanese becomes a homeowner.
Meanwhile, the current ministers of housing recently rejected the notion that house lots can be distributed for free. They highlighted that significant sums are invested into developing these house lots and they are offered at heavily subsidised costs to citizens. The value of the lands offered are much higher than citizens often pay and can be utilised as equity through the banks.
Discover more from INews Guyana
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
