WESTERN BUREAU — The US-based National Association of Real Estate Brokers says it will collaborate with the Rollins-owned Rose Hall Development Ltd in developing 1,000 acres of its Montego Bay property into single family homes.

“Mrs (Michelle) Rollins has asked us to be a part of that effort (and) we have the access to funding, developers, skills and resources to develop strategies,” said Edward London, NAREB’s immediate past president. “We can play a major role there. We will go back and market them as vacation homes or as second homes. There are certainly a lot of possibilities here and we can play a major role.”

Efforts to get a comment from Michelle Rollins, who is the chairperson for RHDL, were unsuccessful. But according to former RHDL consultant, Allan Rickards, construction has already begun on the villas — which are being done in phases — and three of the units in the first phase are almost completed.

“It is an upper scale version of Tryall and that was what John Rollins (now deceased) had envisioned. They are doing just that,” said Rickards.

Meanwhile, London said NAREB will also be collaborating with the Ministry of Water and Housing on the government’s much-heralded low-cost housing project.

He was speaking with the Observer, Tuesday, during his association’s 56th annual convention and trade show at the Ritz-Carlton Golf and Spa Resort at Rose Hall, Montego Bay. The conference was staged under the theme “Building wealth for our members and the community we serve”.

Under a $5-billion programme, the Government plans to construct 3,000 housing units whose design is patterned on the cost-effective Malaysian model. The programme, announced on April 29 during the prime minister’s budget debate, will be financed and overseen by the National Housing Trust, while the UDC will be responsible for implementation.

West Kingston and Central Kingston are the two constituencies that have been earmarked to pilot the programme. Under this redevelopment plan, the NHT projects that it will build 3,000 homes over three years in Kingston, St Catherine and Westmoreland, promising to deliver a 650 square-foot, three-bedroom apartment for about $1.2 million. This is roughly the same price at which the NHT has, up to recently, delivered 266 square-foot quads.

NAREB, London said, is the oldest and largest African-American trade association in America with over 10,000 members in over 60 states and the group is now looking at the possibility of establishing a chapter in the island.