The National Housing Trust (NHT) is reporting increased collections from contributors amounting to $41.6 billion for the last financial year in which it refunded $8 billion in employee contributions, saying that the performance reflects more favourable employment conditions as well as improved contributor compliance.

According to the State agency’s annual report for 2021/2022, tabled in the House of Representatives last Friday, the contributions collection was a key performance area which saw the 2021/2022 target of $38.6 billion being surpassed by eight per cent.

“This amount represents an approximate 21.2 per cent or $7.3 billion increase over the sums collected in 2020/2021. This significant improvement over last year’s performance is reflective of more favourable employment conditions and increased efforts to improve contributor compliance,” the NHT said.

“Additional payments from public and private sector entities as a result of wage increases, retroactive payments and bonus/incentive payments, as well as the payment of arrears from micro, small and medium-sized employers, also contributed to the increase in contributions collected,” the report read.

In terms of employee contributions up to 2014, the report outlined that “a total of 156,255 contributors were refunded, representing a total of $6.7 billion in cash refunds, $0.2 billion more than the amount refunded for the 2020/2021 period. When transfers to mortgagors’ accounts ($1.3 billion) are factored, the trust paid out a total of $8 billion in refunds for the year under review”.

For mortgage collection, the agency received $23 billion in loan repayments, $2.3 billion more than budgeted, and $1.9 billion more than the previous year.

“The increase in sums collected is the result of timely receipt and posting of salary deductions and improved compliance of mortgagors owing to improved debt management techniques,” the report read.

In addition, a total of 9,248 mortgage loans were granted to contributors between April 2021 and March 2022, roughly six per cent more than targeted. Similarly, total loans disbursed in 2021/2022 increased by six per cent when compared to last year.

“Main mortgage loans accounted for the vast majority (79 per cent) of the loans disbursed for the year (7,327) with a value of approximately $32.3 billion,” the report further revealed.

The document also highlighted that the open market and house lot benefit types continued to exceed target, accounting for approximately 56 per cent of the main mortgage loans written, and around 55 per cent of the total number of loans written over the period.

The NHT also noted that housing starts exceeded the revised target set for 2021/2022 by six per cent, totalling 1,608 housing solutions. However, the number represented a near 7.8 per cent decline from the previous year which recorded 1,744 housing starts.

“Housing starts comprised construction on one housing development and 1,464 individual projects (Build on Own Land, Construction Loan, etc) this year,” the report read.

The NHT is also reporting that despite some restrictive measures brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic, more houses were completed for 2021/2022 (2,667) than the previous year (2,444). Individual beneficiary construction projects increased by 8.1 per cent amounting to 1,235 completions. As with the previous year, the report noted, individual beneficiary construction projects accounted for just under half (46.3 per cent) of all housing completions.

“NHT projects inclusive of joint ventures, the Labour and Small Materials Programme, and the Community Renewal Programme, delivered 897 solutions — 33.6 per cent of the total number of housing solutions completed throughout the year,” the report said.

In the meantime, the NHT is reporting that at the end of the 2021/2022 financial year, its assets amounted to $328.3 billion, representing growth of 5.7 per cent over 2020/2021. In addition, loans receivables totalled $256.7 billion and accounted for 78.2 per cent of total assets.

“This asset class recorded an increase of 7.6 per cent over the previous year, mainly bolstered by an 8.8 per cent increase in loans to beneficiaries selected by the trust moving from $232.9 billion in 2021 to $253.5 billion at the end of March 2022,” the report said.

Further, in keeping with the growth in investment in housing, the NHT said its inventories increased to $38 billion, up from $34.4 billion at the end of the 2020/2021 financial year. It said that housing under construction, which accounts for 76 per cent of inventories, was valued at $28.7 billion or $3.9 billion more than the last financial year.

“We have continued to target the increased deployment of financial resources toward creating and financing housing solutions for our contributors. At the end of the 2021/2022 financial year, 90 per cent of the trust’s total assets were invested in housing. This is consistent with our plans to ramp up the number of new housing solutions in line with the Government’s target of 70,000 housing starts by 2025/2026,” the report stated.