1000 house lots to be allocated at Amelia’s Ward Linden

One thousand house lots will be allocated to residents of Amelia’s Ward Linden next Thursday when the Housing Ministry hosts another of its One Stop Shops in the community.

This announcement was made by Head of the Presidential Secretariat Dr Roger Luncheon on Thursday at his weekly post- Cabinet press briefing.

Dr Luncheon stated that the distribution of house lots to residents of Linden would make a total of 6500 house lots allocated across the country so far. Preparatory investments have been made to the tune of $ 500 million for roads and drains, potable water and electricity.

He said the One Stop Shop in Amelia’s Ward would be the 12th of its kind, hosted by the housing sector this year. Two other One Stop Shops are to be held before year- end.

Dr Luncheon, when quizzed by the media about the supervisory roles played by the Housing Ministry and the Central Housing and Planning Authority in ensuring that houses are constructed within the contractual period, said monitoring does occur, but persons are given enough time to construct their homes before house lots are rescinded.

“ This is the reasonable concern of ours and the concern, of course, does not materialise at the time of the failure to build within the stipulated times.” He added that those who cannot afford to build shortly after obtaining their house lots are also assisted as much as possible, so that they can access funding to commence construction. Dr Luncheon noted that once it is evident that a house lot recipient is committed to commence construction, the individual would more than likely have access to lowcost mortgages.

“ There are occasions when there is failure, yes house lots have been repossessed, but this has started from historical allocations – a defaulter would have to be a defaulter of some due reason… a house lot allocated in 2010 notwithstanding the stipulations of the CH& PA and the Housing Ministry exercises discretion… my understanding is the move to repossess dealt with years- ago allocations and allottees would have had some opportunities to move forward with construction.” Two more One Stop Shop exercises are planned for before year- end as the Housing Ministry hopes to make a further 4,500 lots available in Bath, Zeelugt, Leonora, Amelia’s Ward, Herstelling, and Good Hope among other locations.