From house lots to beer gardens

Nov 15, 2026 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

(Kaieteur News) – When government was establishing its housing schemes across Guyana, acquiring a house lot in one of those housing schemes came with a fairly straightforward understanding. You were acquiring a residential property to build a home, not a shopping mall, supermarket, nightclub, motor workshop or branch of the United Nations.

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If my memory serves me correctly, this was not merely an informal understanding. There were express conditions attached to the allocation of house lots, including provisions in the agreements signed by purchasers which restricted the use of the property to residential purposes and prohibited commercial activities. People were being allocated land to build homes. Neighbourhoods were being planned as residential communities.