Donald Ramotar launches project to build 1,000 ‘turn-key’ homes at Providence

Jun 08, 2013 News

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…partnering with Courts for furniture

By Leonard Gildarie

Government announced its largest housing programme yesterday that will see it undertaking the construction of 1000 ‘turn-key’ homes at a new scheme in Providence, East Bank Demerara.
It was also announced that a deal is being worked out with furniture giant, Courts Guyana, in another partnership programme to meet the growing demand for these ready-done homes.

The homes will come in two models – a 20 feet x 30 feet, two-bedroom structure for $4.9M and a three-bedroom, 900-1000 square feet, for around $9M.
According to Housing Minister, Irfaan Ali, there has been an overwhelming demand for the turn-key homes which are sold completed with lands to the successful applicants. The lands and homes are also heavily subsidized.
The new scheme, to be called Perseverance New Housing Development, is located about two miles east of the National Stadium, with several roads linking the Mocha access road and the East Bank Highway, already under construction.
At the launching yesterday were President Donald Ramotar; Finance Minister, Dr. Ashni Singh; private sector and housing officials, several banks and the New Building Society, which have been collaborating on a number of housing initiatives.
Ali said that the demand for housing has forced the ministry to diversify, becoming one “entity with many branches”.
Not only is there ongoing partnerships with the commercial banks and NBS; contractors; suppliers of goods and services; but there are moves to have Courts, which specialized in hire-purchase deals for furniture, to have some of the homes built by the Housing Ministry, outfitted with furniture.
The official disclosed that his ministry’s housing operational arm, the Central Housing and Planning Authority (CH&PA),  started building 20 of the turn-key homes, initially as a pilot project, but the large number of applications triggered a decision to increase this to 300 in the Region Three (West Demerara) and Region Four (East Demerara) areas.
The Ministry had partnered with mortgage lender, NBS, in the pilot project.
The idea behind the turn-key structures is to ensure high occupancy of new housing areas and bring immediate benefits, Ali said.
Already, Government has build a number of turn-key homes selling the smaller units for under $5M and the three-bedroom Florida-style ones at Eccles for just under $14M, complete with lands.
Infrastructure work on the new housing schemes could start in less than a year, the Minister said.
Finance Minister, Dr. Ashni Singh, noted that the government is fully aware of the pride in owning a home given the development in especially the Diamond/Grove Housing Schemes.
These schemes exemplify how quickly the areas have improved with restaurants, insurance offices, fire and police station and even a hospital springing up in virtually no time.

To spur the housing development, Government had introduced a number of measures that saw low income mortgage rates introduced. This year, new homeowners began benefitting from tax rebates on the interest that they pay for mortgage amounts below $30M.
For the first quarter this year, over 3,400 borrowers accessed mortgages in excess of $9.3B from the banks and NBS.
It is clear that the private sector has been growing too, Singh said, with indication at the end of the first quarter that commercial banks lent in excess of $163.5B, about $2B more than last year.
According to President Ramotar, his administration remained determined to ensure all Guyanese have a home. This was the campaign promise as contained in his party’s manifesto, he stressed yesterday.
Arguing for Government’s involvement in the Perseverance project, the President made it clear that there is growing evidence that citizens are not too enthusiastic about hiring contractors and worrying about other construction details. The number of applications on file for the homes supports the initiative.
He also recognized the importance of home ownership which not only brings wealth to citizens but provides family security.
Regarding the housing promise made by his party, Ramotar said that 30,000 house lots were promised before 2016. Last year, almost 8,000 house lots were distributed, a 22 per cent increase over the targeted 6,500.
Some 4,177 titles were also distributed with over $3.3B plugged in developing new infrastructures along the East Bank of Demerara. This is significant, he said, if it is taken into account that $1.3B was spent between 2004 and 2011 in the East Bank corridor.
Government recently said that lands for housing are fast running out on the East Bank of Demerara with attention now being paid to open new areas along the Soesdyke/Linden Highway.

 

 

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