Government to encourage more persons to accept house lots in Region 3 as backlog swells to 50,000 in Region 4 alone – News Source Guyana
President Irfaan Ali today said there is still a significant housing deficit, although the Government has allocated more than 50,000 house lots in the last five years.
In a recorded statement, the President said even as the Government continues to distribute house lots and houses through its housing programme, the backlog has increased to between 75,000 to 78,000 applicants with over 50,000 of those applications in Region 4 alone.
The President said there continues to be considerable interest being shown in the housing sector and Government will be moving to secure additional land as the demand increases.
“So, Guyana faces a housing backlog now of approximately 75,000 to 78,000 and that is as of early 2026, what is interesting is that over 50,000 of that backlog is concentrated in region 4 and that is one of the major challenges and despite distributing 53,000 house lots between 2020-2025, we still have this deficit because of the confidence in the system and number of new applicants and what we had to clear when we came into government,” the President stated.
President Ali explained that the Government’s 2025-2030 housing strategic plan should clear the entire backlog, except for Region 4. He stated, however, that there are also plans afoot to encourage some of the Region 4 applicants to take up house lots in Region 3.
“It is important however, that a number of applicants from Region 4 where we have that enormous demand will be transferred to region 3. So, while we need an adequate number to clear the Region 3 backlog, we will have to invest more in Region 3 where there is land available to help to clear Region 4 backlog,” the President said.
As it relates to other Regions, the President said those backlogs will be cleared between this year and next year.
However, he noted that persons are now going after the government-built homes instead of house lots and announced a targeted housing programme which will target the vulnerable population in the first phase.
“We are going to build a mechanism through which we are going to identify highly vulnerable persons in our society—single mothers, who are facing specific economic challenges, people living with disability, elderly and we are going to have a social housing programme to support them and support home ownership,” the President said.
The President noted too that the increase interest in the housing sector is due to favorable rates negotiated by the government at commercial banks as well as confidence in the system.
