Thousands of Belizeans are now first-time landowners

Thousands of Belizeans nationwide are now first-time land owners due to the government’s initiative to ensure that every Belizean have at least on parcel of land.  Since 2020, the government has been holding countrywide land clinics aimed at assisting residents in obtaining their land documents, and rectifying any pending land matters they may have. The efforts have resulted in thousands of Belizeans being able to obtain the title for their properties after years of facing various challenges. Acting Prime Minister and Minister of Natural Resources, Cordel Hyde, says the overall goal is to provide the Belizean people with the assets they need to create generational wealth. 

Cordel Hyde, Minister of Natural Resources, Petroleum and Mining:  “As you know we’ve tried to address the people who need help the most in the country whether it is by way of increasing the minimum wage by 51% or whether it’s by way of providing free education on the South side of Belize City or by way of building nice concrete homes for people who didn’t have a house before who were living in broken down houses who really didn’t have anything. Those are some of the initiatives that we’ve undertaken as a government. We want to do a whole lot more. We have to do a whole lot more because the need is so great. In the case of lands department we’ve been able to provide lands to first time land owners,  thousands of times all over the country not just people who are unemployed but actually people who are employed too whether it’s police officers or public officers or nurses or teachers or soldiers people who have been working for a long time but never owned a piece of land and we’ve been able to step into that reach and provide that and that’s been really special for us. Right at this moment we are completing the survey of some 11,000 house lots that we will be spreading all over the country, we’ll be making sure that people who don’t have get that’s what we try to do every day we try to make sure that we can have lands, get those lands surveyed and get it to the people in the fastest possible way it’s really a transfer of wealth. It’s a transfer of wealth to people who did not have before and when you get that kind of wealth you’re talking about hundreds of millions of dollars because at minimum one of these lots valued $10,000, $15,000, $20,000 so when we are giving thousands of lots the first time land owners we are actually transferring wealth to those persons, we’re actually giving them the opportunity to lift themselves and their families out of poverty whether it is that they are able to get a mortgage and build a decent house whether it is that they are able to bank that particular piece of land and send their children to school you have instances where people have been able to send six,  seven children to school, to university just because they had a piece of land. That’s what it’s about whether you were able to use that land to start a small business or any of the above like that’s what it’s about, it’s about ensuring that we provide for the people who don’t have, give them the opportunity to own a piece of the jewel. It’s a finite piece of thing we have here, it’s shrinking pretty fast and so it’s our job to try to focus on the people who don’t have that’s what we’ve been trying to do.” 

Later in our newscast, we’ll tell you about the residents in Port Loyola who were able to apply for land and address their land queries earlier today.