Land Use Strategy Could Lower Cost Of Housing

A Special Integrated Committee has been appointed to examine lands being held by State agencies on behalf of the Government, to determine those considered suitable for housing development.

Prime Minister, the Most Hon. Andrew Holness, says this forms part of the Government’s efforts to provide more affordable housing for a significant number of Jamaicans whose incomes would make owning a home “almost an impossible dream for them”.

Among these persons, Mr. Holness said, are barbers, mechanics, household helpers, taxi men, cooks, and gardeners.

The Prime Minister said the targeted agencies include the Sugar Corporation of Jamaica (SCJ), National Land Agency (NLA), National Water Commission (NWC), and Jamaica Railway Corporation (JRC).

He made the announcement during his 2022/23 Budget Debate presentation in the House of Representatives on Thursday (March 17) under the theme ‘Building Our Jamaica: Sowing Seeds for Peace, Opportunity and Prosperity’.

Mr. Holness said the Government is aware of appeals from many persons for more affordable housing, noting that “we have been sharpening our pencils to get the numbers down, through creative designs and material use, and creative financing options”.

This includes instructing the National Housing Trust (NHT), for which the PM has portfolio responsibility, to also focus its developments on units that will come to the market priced at between $8 million and $11 million.

“Someone purchasing a house today for $8 million would be paying on average $29,800 per month for a mortgage. This is still high but not unreasonable, and it is an improvement, as the average price range previously was $11 million to $15 million. At the lower end of that range you’d be paying $39,500 per month. So, targeting this lower range is an improvement,” Mr. Holness pointed out.

He said, however, that even at those price points “housing is just not affordable for a large segment of the Jamaican population”.

The Prime Minister noted that although some of these persons may have been NHT contributors and entitled to a loan, “there were very few housing solutions that their income could afford”.

Additionally, Mr. Holness said the Government recognises that even with the thrust to have the NHT come to market with lower-priced homes, “we will get some persons in the lower income band, but not all of the lower income band… [as such] there still needs to be another effort”, citing subsidies as an option to lower housing costs.

Mr. Holness noted that while the Government currently fully subsidises the social housing programme, the same is not undertaken for other units. “We couldn’t”, he added.

He indicated that the Housing Agency of Jamaica (HAJ) and NHT do some subsidising through their developments by absorbing planning and approval costs, land acquisition costs and, in some instances, infrastructure costs.

“But the Government could not, in a wholesale way, [fully] finance the subsidy of housing,” the Prime Minister emphasised.

Consequently, Mr. Holness said he has instructed all agencies holding land on behalf of the Government to identify these and report those considered suitable for development and others deemed to be marginal agricultural land to the Ministry of Housing.

“We are now looking at their land banks. We have appointed [the] committee to look at those lands, because what we don’t want to do is take agricultural lands for housing.” he informed the House.

Mr. Holness said upon conducting a detailed inspection of the available lands and determining how much there is, “then we will come to the Parliament, and we will have debate about how we should treat with these lands… how we can use [these] to further bring down the cost of housing.”