JAMAICA’S mortgage market is valued at around $500 billion, according to data collected by the Bank of Jamaica (BOJ) and the National Housing Trust (NHT).

The market is expected to move upwards in value in 2022 with a number of new housing developments in the pipeline.

Growth in the last year is represented by NHT mortgage receivables which increased from $206.12 billion in 2020 to $225.38 billion at March 2021, a nine per cent uptick.

Meanwhile, total mortgages held by 11 members of the deposit-taking sector (DTIs) — including eight commercial banks, two building societies and one merchant bank — increased from $257.8 billion at year end 2020 to $306.9 billion at the end of 2021, according to the BOJ.

The 19 per cent improvement represents loan balances at the end of the year.

Combining DTIs with the NHT, total mortgage value for 2021 is estimated at $526 billion, representing overall sector growth in the region of 13 per cent, year over year.

Excluded are the full-year data for the NHT. Excluded also are data from local credit unions which are also players in the mortgage market.

The BOJ reported $9.1 billion in mortgages for the credit union sector in 2019, and $10.6 billion in 2020. No 2021 data for credit unions were available.

Further growth in the mortgage market is projected based on Real Estate Development Board (REB) disclosures of a continued increase in the number of schemes across the island which are set for construction.

For 2021, 92 building projects were approved, consisting of developments on 2,226 lots across the island.

Over two years, the projection gets higher. The year before, 84 development projects were approved, consisting of 1,853 lots and 2,255 units.

Housing stock will increase the most in Kingston and St Andrew where, in 2021, there were 52 developments approved, and 51 the year before.

St Catherine ranks second in the number of developments approved for construction with 12 approved in 2020 and 10 in 2021.

Ranking third by the size of new projects approved is the parish of St Ann, where seven projects were approved for 667 lots and 389 residential units in 2020.

In the same parish, in 2020, four projects were approved for 272 lots and 479 residential units.