KINGSTON, Jamaica (JIS) — Prime Minister Andrew Holness says the National Housing Trust (NHT) is far advanced in the delivery of some 8,000 housing solutions in the St Catherine and Clarendon.

Holness said people should seek to be part of such structured developments, as the NHT has made it easier for small wage earners to access funds for home building.

“The NHT is doing all that it can to make homeownership much easier, and we are going to reach the point in Jamaica, where the cost of squatting will be higher than the cost of acquiring your legal home,” the prime minister said.

He was addressing the ground-breaking ceremony for the Villages of Colbeck Castle Phase one and two housing development in Old Harbour, St Catherine last Friday.

The $5.4 billion development includes the construction of some 595 housing solutions.

Currently, the NHT’s lowest earning contributors can access increased funding following improvements made to the Home Grant programme.

Individuals earning below $12,000 weekly and who have been contributing for over seven years, can now get up to $2.5 million.

By combining this, with their mortgage loan, contributors should be able to purchase a unit equivalent in value to an NHT studio.

 “We are widening the reach of the NHT (by) increasing the allocation to ensure that all Jamaicans have a housing solution,” Holness said.

The Villages of Colbeck Castle is a joint venture project between the NHT and BCR Industries, with a 70 per cent ownership by the Trust.

The development, which is being done on 36.01 hectares of land, comprises 595 serviced lots; designated areas for a high school and four basic schools and parks; and spaces for recreational, historical, cultural, religious, agricultural, and commercial purposes. It is slated for completion in October 2018.

NHT interest rates on loans range from zero per cent to six per cent, based on the borrower’s income. Individuals can complete loan repayments in forty years or up to age 70.