As part of efforts to make lands available for its housing development programmes, the Government of Guyana has announced that it will be moving to repossess hundreds of acres of prime lands that were sold to private developers under the previous administration.
The government is claiming that many of these lands were issued under the previous administration to be developed as housing areas, but are yet to be utilised.
“We believe it is not right for large swaths of lands to be lying idle while we are trying our best all around to find land for people,” Minister of State, Joseph Harmon said today at a post-Cabinet media briefing held at the Ministry of the Presidency.
Harmon claimed that the current administration on assuming office, found that many of the developers had sub-divided and sold off the lands as house lots at prices 10 times more than what they would have paid for them.
The government has since served the itinerant private developers notice, indicating that they must complete the infrastructural works and housing units that they had committed to under the agreement of sale of the lands.
Recently, Minister of Communities, Ronald Bulkan, had told the media that the Central Housing and Planning Authority (CHPA) had sought legal advice from the Attorney General (AG) on moving forward to repossess the lands.
In the development of the housing units of town houses, duplexes and apartments, the government is also in discussion with the Guyana Sugar Company (GuySuCo) to acquire lands for the construction of the units, Minister Harmon said.
