Gov’t Looking at Providing Lands for Housing Development

Government is looking at a programme to make lands available for housing development as part of measures to drive down housing costs for Jamaicans.

Prime Minister, the Most Hon. Andrew Holness, in making the disclosure at the recent opening of Sagicor Group’s New Brunswick Village in Spanish Town, St. Catherine, said the objective is to make construction of houses more affordable and enable more low-income persons to own a home.

“We will have to dig deep into our land bank and make lands available where the price point of the land is considered in the total value of the house but subtracted from the total value when the house is sold.

“We have started to look at that. We are very much down the wicket, and at the appropriate time we will make an announcement as to how this programme will be executed,” the Prime Minister said.

He pointed out that through the availability of financing, joint ventures, the developers’ programme, and the Guaranteed Purchase Programme with the National Housing Trust (NHT), the Government has been able to influence the market and keep prices in a range that people can afford.

He noted, however, that more needs to be done to reach that segment of the market where the real need exists, which is the low-income bracket.

The Prime Minister said the NHT and the Housing Agency of Jamaica (HAJ) are actively building houses for low-income earners, but they will not be able to build all the affordable and accessible houses that are required.

“We need the private sector to go into that segment of the market, and we must get the prices down [to benefit] the bartenders, the mechanics, the hairdressers, the gardeners; those persons need houses too,” he said.

The Prime Minister says that part of reducing housing costs is improving the approvals and permitting processes and integrating technology in the building process.