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Almost an entire year’s budget needed to address housing backlog – Pres. Ali
Kaieteur News – The Government of Guyana (GoG) will need an investment of $570B to address 43,000 of the 57,000 housing backlog currently in the system – this is according to President Irfaan Ali.
The president gave the featured address at the opening ceremony of the International Building Exposition 2023, which is being held at the Guyana National Stadium, up to Sunday August 27, 2023.
President Irfaan Ali
“It is very important for us to have an understanding as to what are the challenges, although we have made such monumental gains in the housing sector, there are so many challenges that we have to look at,” the Head-of-State said.
President Ali noted that the main issue plaguing the ministry is the backlog of applications that must be processed.
According to him, there are about 57,000 applications in the database. He explained that because of the volume of applications in Regions Three, Four and Six the ministry is only processing applications up to 2019. As it relates to the other regions, the president said those applications should be processing in real-time.
In order to address the housing woes, the president underscored that the government has planned to allocate 43,000 house lots within the next three years.
Ali stated that government will allocate 20,000 house lots in Regions Four, 14,000 in Region Three, 4000 in Region Six, and 1000 lots in Regions Two, Five, Seven, Nine and Region Ten allocate 250 lots in Region One. He also stated that a commitment was made to build 500 homes in the hinterlands.
“Now what will it take financially to achieve this when we add up the total number of lots that we will deliver based on these numbers? It comes up to 43,000, still more than 14,000 short of what is in the system,” the President said.
According to President Ali, to get more lands to allocate, the government will need to go into new areas that will require development.
“To get to 43,000 house lots, it will cost us an investment of $170 billion dollars,” President Ali noted, adding, “There is a bigger story, in order for us to get to the new lands, we have to build highways, and just to get to the lands that will allow us to build the infrastructure for the 43,000 house lots, we will have to develop 200 kilometers of new four-lane highways.”
The Head-of-State said that to open new lands and create access to those lands, it is estimated to cost $400B.
“That is the scale of the development and the magnitude of the development work that is ahead of us, that is the level of investment that the government must find to deliver service to all applicants and this is a simpler example as to where the revenues will be spent and how it will be spent to create house lots that will give you homes that will empower you that will increase your net worth,” Ali stated.
He continued, “It also tells the private sector, skilled workers, the contractors, about the level of opportunity and the scale of opportunity that the economy will present in the coming years.”
Notably, President Ali said the size of the investment needed to address the backlog in the housing sector, is more than the entire capital budget for 2023, not including the supplementary funds.
The President noted that there are 175 applications for industrial lots, and 416 applications for commercial lots, in the system. To this end, he said, “The reality is that we do not have enough land available in the system now to service even 50% of the demand for industrial and commercial land.”
Additionally, he said, “It will take some more time for us to open up new lands new opportunity.”
As such, he said the government is looking at the Wales, Enmore, La Bonne Intention industrial zones, and ramping up the availability of commercial and industrial spaces in Region Six at Belvedere and in Lethem.
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