Census 2022 reveals the "Paper Growth" of the Housing Sector

Census 2022 reveals the “Paper Growth” of the Housing Sector

Jan 15, 2026 Letters

Dear Editor,

I welcome the release of the 2022 National Population and Housing Census Preliminary Report. While it has arrived with significant delays and at a $2 billion cost to the taxpayers, its publication is a critical development. Data is the lifeblood of governance; without it, we are navigating the development of our nation by guesswork. Now that the “ground truth” is available, we must use it to interrogate the reality of our development, specifically regarding the housing sector.

For years, the Ministry of Housing has touted administrative figures, allocations and processed titles, as proof of a booming housing market. However, when we overlay the Minister Colin Croal’s recent end-of-year figures, December 28, 2025, with this new Census data, a disturbing picture emerges: the government’s claims are statistically impossible unless they are counting “paper transactions” as “housing delivery.”

First, I am concerned about the hinterland title inflation. On December 30, the Minister of Amerindian Affairs claimed that 16,174 titles were issued to Amerindians between 2020 and 2024. However, the Census reveals that the total combined number of households in the primary Hinterland regions (Regions 1, 7, 8, and 9) is only 26,620.

The math is damning. If the government issued over 16,000 titles in an area with only 26,000 households, they have effectively titled 60% of the entire existing population of the Hinterland. This confirms what we have suspected: the government’s “25,000 title” success story is not driven by new housing construction. It is driven by the regularization of families already living in their ancestral homes. This is administrative cleanup, not housing delivery.

Secondly, I am concerned by the housing crisis in Region 4. The disconnect is even more alarming on the coast. Minister Croal recently admitted to a backlog of 52,000 applicants in Region 4 alone. The Census now confirms that Region 4 has a total of 112,876 households.

This means the backlog of people waiting for a home is equivalent to 46% of the entire existing population of the region. A backlog of this magnitude, nearly half the region’s household count, cannot be solved by the current model of slow-walking land allocations. It represents a demographic crisis that the “Lot Allocation” strategy has failed to dent.

Finally, where is the construction boom? Minister Croal boasts of 53,000 allocations nationally. Yet, the Census data on “Building Stock” does not reflect a construction boom of this magnitude. If 53,000 new lots were truly active, we would see a massive divergence between building stock and households. We do not. The data suggests that while the Ministry has been busy printing allocation letters, the recipients have been unable to build.

The Census measures people and homes. The Ministry measures paper and promises. The widening gap between the two is where 78,000 Guyanese are currently stuck, waiting for a strategy that delivers keys, not just allocation letters.

Sincerely,
Sherod Duncan, MP

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Census 2022 reveals the “Paper Growth” of the Housing Sector

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