50% Reduction in house lot prices announced by Gov’t

A 50% reduction in the current prices of house lots was on Monday morning announced by Junior Minister of Communities, Valarie Patterson.
The reduction takes effect from today and will conclude in May when Guyana celebrates its 50th Independence anniversary and forms part of the Ministry’s vision to make home ownership more affordable.
“If by the 1st of May you have completed paying 50% of the cost of your house lot then you will be given a 50% discount on the balance of that house lot but it must be paid by the end of May…so if you have a house lot for $1M and by the 1st of May you would have completed paying $500,000 which is 50% then you will have the other 50% as a discount,” Minister Patterson said.
Further, she explained, “you can get a piece of land that is more affordable to you so if you have a $2M allocation and it’s not affordable and you need a $500,000 -$700,000 we can give you an affordable allocation.”
The Minister also cautioned against the illegal practice of reselling lands before the 10 years’ expiration date and warned that persons will be penalized as the ministry moves to aggressively bring an end to this practice.
Another area of priority is the regularization of squatter’s settlement.
“We are going to do so, but we’re not encouraging new squatters to come on board. Have your applications in and I am saying to you that we are working aggressively to have house lots available to you so you can get your house lot through the legal means.”
Several persons will also be given $300,000 for home improvement as part of the 50th anniversary celebrations to upgrade their homes.
This promotion by the ministry will be done countrywide and is available to persons living in government schemes.