THIS IS OBNOXIOUS!

Jun 19, 2011 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

The decision of the government to farm out large tracts of public land to private developers for housing development is obnoxious.
The latest development in this direction is taking in areas on the East Bank of Demerara, whereby land acquired by the government from the Guyana Sugar Corporation is being given out to private developers. This land has been resold to private companies and individuals who are then going to put in the infrastructure, divide it into lots and resell to the public.
But who is going to purchase these resold lots? Not those in desperate need of housing. They would be unable to pay the prices that will be charged. The recipients will end up being the rich. In short, state land will end up in the hands of the rich.
So why is the government taking state land, owned by the people of Guyana and which for centuries was worked by cane cutters, and selling it to the rich? Why is this land being given to the rich when there are so many individuals who can be lifted out of poverty by receiving even a small portion?
One argument is that the private developers are going to put in the infrastructure and therefore free government of this responsibility. This argument, however, overlooks the fact that the cost of the infrastructure has always been incorporated in the cost of the house lot. It is not a cost to the government. It is a cost to the person to whom the house lot will be allocated. This is why the cost of government house lots is so high. It is high because the cost of the infrastructure is included.
When the government therefore announces that it is spending billions each year on infrastructure development in housing schemes, the public must not believe that this is money that the government is not going to recoup. Persons given house lots are paying exorbitant sums for these lots, and it is this that the government is using to develop the schemes.
So why then sell state land to private developers?
When the PPP started its housing drive, house lots were going as cheap as $60,000. Some developers are now asking for $4M and $6M. But they cannot be blamed because they are also paying a high price for them.
One wonders how the Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuCo) feels when it sees what prices this land is fetching on the open market when compared to what it was sold for to the government.
Perhaps, if GuySuCo goes into land development, it may be able to turn around the company and make billions in profits rather than being in the red. Why could the struggling sugar corporation not be allowed to sell its own land directly to developers at a premium price? Why did it have to sell directly to the government who then resells to developers?
The growth of private housing schemes has pushed land and house prices through the roof. Thus, while some of these schemes may end up being extremely impressive, the policy of land development by the rich has had an adverse effect on property values and thus disadvantaging the poor, by placing land and housing beyond their reach.
No wonder you can have a situation whereby someone can sell a property in the second poorest country in Caricom for US$600,000. The effect of this single transaction alone is bound to move even the price of a dog pen up a few millions.
This is a reversal of what the founder of the PPP stood for, and shows just how far away the ruling party has strayed from its working class ideals.
The government now seems more concerned about making the rich richer, and in so doing, is making it prohibitive for the small man.
With private developers looking for customers to buy their multi-million-dollar lots, re-migrants are going to be a targeted segment. There are many overseas-based Guyanese who are returning and who are looking for land. The government may be unknowingly pushing re-migrants into the clutches of the private developers.
There is now the suggestion by the government that there may be a minimum cap on the amount that a re-migrant has to invest in a government – not private – house lot. The proposed sum is prohibitive.
What this will do is force the re-migrants to move towards the private developers, because why would any re-migrant spend a minimum of US$100,000 to invest in a government housing scheme when they can get a better deal with a private investor?
All this will do, is make the rich developers richer. Everything is laid out to allow the rich to become richer in Guyana, while the poor are being thrown a few crumbs to make them feel that they are part of the action.

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