Confusion erupts at Region 3 land allocation exercise
Apr 15, 2025
… minister says new date for those turned away
Kaieteur News- Confusion broke out on Monday at the West Demerara Secondary School as over 1,000 hopeful Region Three residents turned up at the Ministry of Housing and Water’s land allocation exercise, only to be turned away.
The event was part of the Central Housing and Planning Authority’s (CH&PA), flagship ‘Dream Realised’ programme aimed at allocating house lots in the new Wales Housing Development.
Scenes from the house lot allocation exercise (Credible Source photo)
While some 1,000 persons received house lots on Monday, hundreds more who had gathered early in the morning were left frustrated when they could not be accommodated.
Minister of Housing and Water Collin Croal told Kaieteur News that persons were indeed turned away, but assured that the ministry is working to accommodate everyone.
“Yes, persons had to be turned away, that’s a fact, and I want to say to them, all will be addressed,” Minister Croal stated. “We only opened up for 1,000 persons today. Those who did not get through, we have taken note of most of them, and we will deal with those as a priority on the next allocation exercise.”
Minister Croal explained that the allocation exercise was opened to applicants who had submitted their applications up to December 31, 2024, as the ministry worked to reduce backlogs for Region Three and all other regions except Region Four by July.
“Prior, we were working with 2019 and earlier. Now we’ve opened it up to December 2024. All pending applications will be attended to or offered a house lot before July,” he said. “Anyone who applied before December 31, 2024, and has not yet been offered will be considered.”
Kaieteur News understands that the confusion may have arisen from persons turning up to the exercise without even applying for a house lot. Minister Croal however denied this. There were also concerns from attendees about poor conditions while waiting. Persons were seen standing for long periods because of poor seating accommodation.
“They were given tents, and we were using the West Demerara Secondary School as a holding area,” he said.
Meanwhile, the ministry in a statement noted that the allocation exercise targeted various income brackets, including low, moderate, middle, and high-income applicants, with house lots being distributed at Plantation Lorenzo and Plantation Viva La Force.
Scenes from the house lot allocation exercise (Credible Source photo)
The ministry said that since 2020, over 44,500 house lots have been distributed across Guyana, including approximately 9,000 lots in Region Three across 12 housing areas. However, the region still faces a backlog of around 14,000 applications.
“The ministry is working aggressively to clear applications submitted up to the end of 2024 in all administrative regions, with the exception of Region Four, where efforts are focused on significantly reducing the backlog,” the ministry stated.
In addition to the new allocations, over 700 Certificates of Title and Transports are also being distributed in Region Three to previous allottees. To date, more than 340 ownership documents have already been handed over.
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