Approximately 436 applicants who were approved for the allocation of houselots for Phase Two of the Onderneeming Housing Scheme within Parfaite Harmonie, West Bank Demerara were invited last week to the Ministry of Housing and Water, Brickdam to select their lot numbers.
The allocation of the lots by lottery is part of the Housing Ministry’s ongoing ‘One Stop Shop’ initiative to reduce transaction time in processing housing applications and allocations, the Government Information Agency (GINA) reported.
Minister of Housing and Water Irfaan Ali who addressed the allottees noted the importance of persons securing their own home.
“If you were to carefully work out the economics of moving expeditiously to building your homes by multiplying the amount of money you would have been paying on house rent every month, the investment would have been lost to the landlord…if you are to take that rent money and move towards the construction of your own home, within four to five months your home would be completed and you would be paying back the bank the same rate for rental,” the minister was quoted by GINA as saying.
The Housing Minister told the applicants that as they move towards realizing their dreams they should build homes that they can afford, to avoid the burden of having huge loans to repay.
According to GINA, Onderneeming Phase Two has 1,029 lots of which 580 will be allocated in the first phase. The lots for the first phase are low-income and are sold at a cost of $92,000.
An investment of $400M, the minister said, was expended in the housing scheme for the construction of roads, drains and structures and pure water distribution network. A further $80M will be spent in 2010 for the installation of electricity. Approximately 2,500 people will benefit from these investments.
He noted however that his ministry cannot afford to install electricity in the scheme since it has not been fully occupied and he encouraged the houselot applicants to occupy the lots so that they can benefit from electricity supply.
“We need occupancy level; it makes no sense for us to put in electricity and we do not have the occupancy level so the faster you build the faster you are going to push us to get this done. We are hoping to get this done by 2010,” Minister Ali stated.
Alluding to the targets set by his ministry for this year in processing 2,500 applications and titles, he said that more than 10,000 interviews were conducted and completed in which the allocation department exceeded its target by almost 100 percent.
Meanwhile, GINA said, the ministry will be moving forward with new developments for the Tuschen and Zeelugt Housing Schemes in Region Three and will be expanding the Non-Pariel Housing Scheme, East Coast Demerara which will come on stream in 2010.
