Over the last decade, Guyana’s housing sector, thanks to the opening up of new lands and a huge demand for homes, saw an unprecedented growth.
Anastasia Fedko (third from right) and Andrew Brotherson (third from left) with housing and GO-Invest officials on a tour recently.
It paralleled gold when it came to affecting a gamut of workers and businesses. It provided jobs for contractors and labourers, banks, lawyers, surveyors, truckers, hardware suppliers, and of course, provided revenues for the state from Customs taxes, among other things.
However, the industry has slowed with a new administration in place, and with scrutiny on whether past practices were the best ones.
With lands scarce now and stories of bad experiences, new homeowners are thinking twice before venturing too far out.
A loose arrangement with contractors has not helped the situation, with widespread belief that contractors were cutting corners and delivering poor quality work.
Many a homeowner, on top of their mortgage and oftentimes unfinished properties, were left scrambling to find extra dollars to do repairs.
Poor quality housing materials, in a largely unregulated housing market, have not been helping much.
A Canadian company, TILT-UP Technology Inc, is here now offering precast walls and even roofs that they say will not only speed up construction time and save costs, but will guarantee longer lasting homes.
According to Andrew Brotherson, the Managing Director, and Anastasia Fedko, Vice President of Business Development, they have been talking with government on a number of initiatives.
A home built by TILT-UP that used precast expertise.
“Guyana and its precast concrete future is the way to go. It has tremendous benefits and we are bringing it to Guyana,” Fedko disclosed.
The company, which has already established itself in Grenada and is looking to spread it wings in the region, is in talks with government and a few private developers to construct a number of model homes to display the technology.
“TILT-UP Technology (TUT) is ready to introduce its precast concrete housing solution to the Guyanese market. This housing solution spans the gamut; from an affordable to moderate housing. The methodology allows extending structural warranty for 100 years; with consistent quality with every deployment and designs that maximize living space,” an enthusiastic Brotherson explained.
The company is boasting that its precast concrete housing solution can enclose the project quicker than any other building approach.
“Typically, more than 100 square metres can be installed each day. Precast installation speed can shave months from a construction schedule, thus reducing construction financing cost. Based on the use of local Guyanese materials and labour, our solution makes affordable high quality housing possible in the near future,” Fedko pointed out.
“Over the past year TILT-UP Technology, with the help of local government sectors, has discussed an affordable housing solution and the lack thereof – for the lowest of income residents on the path to home-ownership. These discussions resulted in a solution that would be uniquely Guyana.”
The company is planning to start off with three models.
A two-bedroom flat home featuring 600 sq. ft of livable space at a price point of just under US$30,000 ($6M).
“A second option will be a two-bedroom loft design flat home with 725 square feet of livable space at a price point of just under US$35,000 ($7M). The three-bedroom flex side-split home is with a starting footage of 800 square feet. The Flex model was designed to grow with large families – from 3 to 4 bedrooms with two baths at a price point of just under US$40,000,” Brotherson revealed.
It was explained that the technology boasts some inherent features, apart from its natural durability and strength of concrete.
“In New Zealand, recent tests to compare the energy efficiency of precast concrete and timber homes found that a concrete house contributes a cooling effect of 3-4 degrees Celcius during the summer months.:
In partnership with government, TILT-UP said it hopes to announce in the near future, the deployment of two demonstration homes for public scrutiny, “at which time we’ll extend to everyone who is interested, the opportunity to visit these show homes to experience living in a safe, secure, well-built home”.
The company said that persons can sign up at webuild4less.com or contact the project sponsors by email atshowme@webuild4less.com or by calling 684-9237.