#BudgetDebate2018: HAJ expected to make $800-m profit
KINGSTON, Jamaica — The Housing Agency of Jamaica (HAJ) is expected to turn a profit of $800 million this financial year, quadrupling the $183 million it recorded in the last financial year.
This is according to Prime Minister Andrew Holness, who made the disclosure during his contribution to the Budget Debate in the House of Representatives today.
“In only two years we have completed approximately 8,200 housing starts at the NHT, which is 30 per cent more than the People’s National Party (PNP) did in four years,” he contended.
He disclosed that housing starts in this financial year exceed, by a factor of almost two, the number of housing starts done by the NHT in every year over the past 20 years.
“In one year alone, in the 2017/18 year, the NHT will complete 5,200 housing starts in 12 months alone – almost as much as was done during four years under the PNP,” the prime minister further added, giving a breakdown of what the opposition did in the last four years.
He said the PNP Government did:
•1,790 housing starts in 2012
•1,689 housing starts in 2013
•1,549 housing starts in 2014
•1,270 housing starts in 2015
This amounts to 6,298 housing starts over four years, he said, adding that it was less than the number of housing starts under the previous Jamaica Labour Party Administration.