NHT Projects 3,259 Housing Solutions by March 31

The National Housing Trust (NHT) is projected to spend $50.4 billion on developments and achieve 3,259 housing completions during the 2021/22 fiscal year.

Prime Minister, the Most Hon. Andrew Holness, says this is an increase on the $44 billion spent during the previous year.

Making his 2022/23 Budget Debate presentation in the House of Representatives on March 17, he pointed out that the agency, for which he has portfolio responsibility, “has been steadily increasing its housing expenditure – more than doubling it from $24.1 billion in 2016/17 to $50.4 billion in 2021/2022”, while acknowledging that the completion of projects has been adversely affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Prime Minister’s presentation was made under the theme ‘Building Our Jamaica: Sowing Seeds of Peace, Opportunity and Prosperity’.

Mr. Holness advised that the NHT continues to focus on the increased deployment of its financial resources towards creating and financing housing solutions, noting that 92 per cent of the entity’s total assets is now invested in this area.

He told the House that in order to generate additional cash to accelerate housing developments, the NHT has been undertaking sales of mortgage receivables under the Joint Finance Mortgage Portfolio (JFMP).

“The sale of mortgage receivables resulted in inflows of $11.5 billion in this financial year, following $26.2 billion in the previous financial year. The sale of the remaining portion of the JFMP is expected to be completed by the middle of the upcoming financial year,” the Prime Minister indicated.

Mr. Holness further advised that the NHT is projected to create a total of 7,324 new mortgages at a value of $30.27 billion by the end of March 2022.