GL&SC to make available 8000 acres of land for housing development this year

The Guyana Lands and Surveys Commission (GL&SC) is currently working on making approximately 8,000 acres of land available to assist the Housing Ministry in clearing the backlog across the country.

This was revealed by the Commissioner and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the GL&SC, Enrique Monize, during the 25th Anniversary and Award Ceremony for the agency, which manages state and public lands.
According to Monize, the Commission will be providing land in all the Administrative Regions across Guyana, except Region Four (Demerara-Mahaica), which has the highest housing application backlog due to its massive population.

“We are currently working on 8,000 acres more land for this year for CH&PA to help them bring their backlog in the other regions, except Four, to zero. So, we are in the process of surveying those lands,” the GL&SC Head stated during Tuesday ‘s celebrations.

He further pointed out that these lands are transferred, not sold, to the Housing Ministry.

Over the years, the Housing Ministry, through the Central Planning and Housing Authority (CHPA), has been working with the Lands and Surveys Commission along with other state agencies, including the National Industrial and Commercial Investments Limited (NICIL) and the Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuCo), to acquire land in order to fulfill its housing mandate.

Between 2020 and 2025, the Dr. Irfaan Ali-led Administration had committed to allocating approximately 50,000 house lots across the country-a promise it surpassed. During this current term, the Government aims to construct 40,000 new homes, which is 8,000 houses annually.

Only recently, at the opening of the International Building Expo 2026 last week, President Ali disclosed that there are 81,000 housing applications pending in the system-more than half of which are from the last five years alone. Previously, Housing Minister Collin Croal had reported that over 50,000 of the pending applications came from Region Four.

Nevertheless, during Tuesday’s ceremony, Commissioner Monize said the agency has also processed and received approvals for over 9,000 leases up to the end of 2025 for land all across Guyana.

This, he explained, is part of the GL&SC’s commitment and mandate to support development in the country-something that President Ali recognized could not happen without the work of the Commission.

Digitisation

Delivering the feature address at the commission’s anniversary celebrations on Tuesday, President Dr Irfaan Ali noted that while land administration is often overlooked, it remains critical to national progress, especially since every major development initiative begins with proper land identification, surveying, and planning.

To this end, he underscored the importance of ensuring that the agency is better positioned to support Guyana’s expanding development agenda. This, he pointed out, requires the full digitisation of the Lands and Surveys Commission.

“What we are building here at the Commission is an entity that is system-based, people-centered, and service-driven. That is what we are doing… And the objective in the next four years is to deliver an agency that is fully digitised and one in which we will fully implement the most advanced technology to help our work here in every department, in every aspect of our work.”

According to him, the Commission now operates in a more complex environment that requires greater speed, stronger interoperability, and closer coordination with multiple sectors, including housing, mining, forestry, infrastructure, and regional planning.

The President further noted that as Guyana continues to expand, land administration has become increasingly important to ensuring projects move forward efficiently.

As part of that transformation agenda, he highlighted plans to strengthen geographic information systems (GIS), improve institutional coordination, and enhance the security of land tenure for citizens, farmers, businesses, and communities.

“We want institutions that work seamlessly together in support of national development, and we want a system that balances economic growth with responsible stewardship of our land resources for future generations,” he stated.

Already, the GL&SC has invested heavily in technology to enhance its operations, with Commissioner Monize reporting that cutting-edge survey acquisitions were made, computer systems-both hardware and software-upgraded, staff trained, and cybersecurity improved.

In addition, the Legal Division was also upgraded, the defunct Dispute Resolution Committee reconstituted to settle matters outside of court, and the database updated with over 90,000 survey plans added and available to surveyors remotely. The Commission is now working on making this database accessible to the judiciary.