KINGSTON, Jamaica— Prime Minister Andrew Holness says that one of the major contributors to squatting is the lack of an effectively operating housing market on the island.

“There is a genuine need for affordable housing solutions, if people can’t get the housing they’re going to find their own means of surviving,” Holness said.

He noted that each year there is a deficit of about 15,000 new housing solutions.

 Holness was speaking at the handing over ceremony of house titles to 30 families in Greater Portmore, St Catherine on Wednesday.

“If we had a housing market that could provide housing solutions for every income level of persons, then there would be no need for persons to say let me go occupy that piece of land, that I don’t see anyone using,” he said.

According to Holness, the solution lies in empowering the government’s housing arms, the National Housing Trust (NHT) and the Housing Agency of Jamaica (HAJ), to build housing solutions that are affordable for all income brackets of Jamaicans.

The Prime Minister also announced plans to “rapidly increase the number of housing solutions coming to market.”

“What we will do in Bernard Lodge, what we will do in St Thomas and in other areas of the country, will rapidly expand housing and then we have to now reclaim the communities in Kingston to make them attractive again for people to live in,” he said.