The government’s land policy is revolutionizing the housing sector, said President Dr. Irfaan Ali, asserting that thousands of citizens continue to benefit from subsidised housing and land ownership.
Speaking on the subject during a live Facebook broadcast on Monday, the President emphasized that through this policy, Guyanese from all walks of life are now homeowners and landowners.
Over the past four years, the government has heavily invested in the housing sector, focusing on infrastructural development, land allocation, and regularisation.
So far, some 40,000 plots of land have been allocated to citizens across the country.
According to President Ali, the total acreage of land developed and allocated to ordinary Guyanese far exceeds the acreage allocated to private developers for commercial purposes.
Resources generated from the sale of land to private developers are used to help subsidise the government’s investment in low-income, middle-income, and low-middle-income properties.
Lands for private development are subject to stringent scrutiny. The process includes an expression of interest, and once awarded, a deposit is made, and an agreement is signed.
Developers are required to honour several conditions of the agreement within a specific timeframe or risk the termination of the agreement and the forfeiture of 30 percent of their deposit.
No developer receives a title for their property until all conditions under the agreement are satisfied.
All transfers to the developer are made following publication in the national gazette, payment of the entire purchase price, and full satisfaction of the terms and conditions of the agreement.
The President insisted that “no land could be transferred or vested without full payment from the developer.”
He contrasted this with numerous questionable transactions by the previous government, including those following a successful no-confidence motion in 2018.
In some of these transactions, the President pointed out, there were no public notices, expressions of interest, and partial or no payments made by developers despite the transactions amounting to billions of dollars.
Photo of President Ali
