Hammer comes down on foreclosed properties
Stabroek News
June 25, 2004
Several properties and vehicles were 'going, going, gone' on Tuesday during an auction at the State's Warehouse in Kingston.
The event which attracted a fair size crowd sold buildings and real estate most of which had been taken over by banks owed money.
Among the sales was a property on the left bank of the Mahaica Creek that sold for $1.7M; a property at Water and Cornhill Streets, which received one successful bid of $10M; a plot of land at Tuschen on the East Bank Essequibo, which sold for $1.2M; a property at Thomas and Alexander Streets, Kitty for $4.7M; a property at Flensburg, West Bank Demerara, for $5M; a lot at Alness, Corentyne, Berbice, for $5M; and a property on the Kitty Railway Line, which sold for $3.1M. Some of these prices appear to be well below current market value.
A legal source had told Stabroek Business that persons would buy these properties, and then sell them for a considerable profit at a later date.
But one prime property advertised by the Guyana Bank for Trade and Industry (GBTI) was spared the auctioneer's hammer when a stay of execution was acquired from the High Court. This two-storey concrete building located at 279 Peter's Hall on the East Bank of Demerara was part of a GBTI advertisement in the press over the weekend. The National Bank of Industry and Commerce (NBIC), New Building Society (NBS), Scotiabank and the Guyana National Cooperative Bank (GNCB) also had properties put up for sale at the auction.
At an execution sale held at the same venue some months ago, the owner of the Castillo Hotel in Bartica obtained a stay of execution preventing his business from being auctioned.
During the early minutes of the execution sale, a number of vehicles were auctioned including cars and trucks. One car sold for over $1M, a fair price said participants.