(From left) Howard Johnson Jr, president of the Realtors Association of Jamaica; Dr Kevon Rhiney, president of the Jamaican Geographical Society; Earl Samuels, assistant general manager of Jamaica National Building Society and Everton Dewar, attorney-at-law at EJ Dewar & Company at a seminar on “The State of the Jamaican Real Estate Market”, held at the University of the West Indies recently. Samuels urged interest groups to lobby the Government to remove the General Consumption Tax (GCT) on raw materials and for prospective homeowners to be given a tax break on the interest element of their mortgage payments. The GCT removal would help developers to build more affordable houses, while the tax break on mortgage payments would make it easier to afford a mortgage, he argued. “The GCT, which adds 17.5 per cent to the cost of raw materials and professional fees, should be removed for residential property,” he suggested. “This should be capped by limiting this to houses not costing more than $12 million.”