Is there a secret surrounding land for sale?

Oct 17, 2010 Features / Columnists, My Column

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For decades the authorities have been contending that the coastland was overcrowded. They then spoke of creating other communities that would relieve the pressure on the coast. However, they did not take into consideration the pressure that urbanisation places on a population.
It would seem that the plan has shifted to expand the coastal plane. The Ministry of Housing is now taking in abandoned cane fields and selling the land for housing development. But even before this programme, urbanisation gave rise to squatting which remains a social issue. South Sophia became the largest squatting settlement in Guyana and remained so until the government was forced to regularise the area.
Indeed the situation had reached the point where the government could not evict the hundreds who had descended on the land. Some smart persons then decided that there was money to be had so they asked the squatters to pay a price for the plot they occupied. The word was that the money would be used to provide infrastructure.
A lot has changed since then. The government has identified the land and the price has gone up astronomically. Despite this, there is no shortage of takers. The truth is that there seems to be more applicants for that land at this time.
Last week, Housing Minister Irfaan Ali spoke of creating an additional 600 house lots at Parfait Harmonie. He has also been talking about a further 1,000 house lots in other parts of the country. The applicants should be happy, except that the Housing Ministry has sprung some surprises on some of them.
This past week, the Housing Ministry wrote to some of those who had applied some five years ago. It demanded that within two days these people find an initial $250,000 to pay for the land or face having it revoked.
There was a mad scramble by some people to get the money. For those who are affluent this would seem a small sum, but the people who applied for land would not have done so had they been in possession of money to buy land. The Housing Ministry was operating under the principle that these people had the money set aside for such an eventuality.
Five years ago the asking price for most plots was $58,000. If there was to be any saving it would have been in that vicinity. I had a few people approach me for help by publicising their plight. I thought that this was a gross lack of scruples on the part of the people at the Housing Ministry. I concluded that in its haste to satisfy the large number of applicants the Ministry was using the money criterion to weed out applicants.
If the applicant had a child who was seven at the time of the application, that child is now at secondary school and is costing parents so much more. The surprise by the Housing Ministry should not have been sprung.
There must have been some method of determining the cost of the land. At Eccles, some plots sold for one million dollars while others in the same community sold for $58,000. I assumed that the differential in pricing was due to the location of the property. Those closest to the main thoroughfares would have to pay more.
My mind immediately raced to Pradoville where there are some palaces. I was never aware that the land there was on offer. I never saw an advertisement. It must have been that a select few got the offer and grabbed it, leaving the remainder for their friends who could have afforded. The advertisement was by word of mouth.
I am not sure how much the land went for, but I do know that it was a song for many. This is continuing in other parts of the country where prized land is going to a select few. Of course, they are asked to pay a sum that would not cause the lesser mortals to complain about preferential treatment.
For example, there is a plot of land on the Sparendaam foreshore in the area where the radio transmission tower once stood. That tower had to be moved because of flights out of Ogle airstrip. Planes had been flying in an out of that airstrip for decades without any problem with the tower.
The authorities however recognised an inherent danger and they said that this danger was exacerbated with the expansion of the airstrip. I accepted that argument. The land was then made available for housing at $5 million per acre. I learnt that an acre could provide four house lots of regular size or two large lots, depending on the affluence of the purchaser.
I never knew that the land was on offer so I now have friends who are telling me that they would have surely applied because they have the money and they wanted somewhere attractive and yet comfortable.
If nothing else, it is this secretive nature of the Housing Ministry and the Central Housing and Planning Authority that irks so many to the point that they accuse the government of corruption.
I also notice that a few developers are getting land for housing development. I am not aware that there was an advertisement for these acreages so I can only assume that there was some negotiation. This lends itself to charges that friends are being catered to. This is one criticism that could be avoided if only people stop taking the ordinary man for granted.

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