PROFESSIONALS and stakeholders in the real estate sector are being urged to develop minimum standards and collaborate to ensure the sector’s resilience.

“Instead of primarily competing, members of the association could collaborate and cooperate even more for their mutual benefit,” Delroy Chuck, minister of justice, said while delivering the opening address for the first Jamaica Developers Association (JDA) webinar for 2023, held under the theme: ‘Navigating Minefields in Development.’

He added that the implementation of a code of conduct for developers would also be effective, noting that such a document should include minimum quantitative standards to which developers can be held. The minister said the code would ensure that developments benefit their surroundings instead of damaging them.

“On construction sites, there should be minimum standards of behaviour, noise, neighbourly interaction and dislocation and prompt continuous repairs to roads adjoining and leading up to the development,” he said.

While the construction sector has enjoyed a boom, there are issues hampering orderly development, including incomplete or inconsistent information submitted by developers seeking funding for projects, applications from developers continue to be flagged due to irregularities in the data submitted.

“We are concerned about some of these statutory approval documents being received, and these inconsistencies are causing delays. JN is prepared to work with developers to ensure we have a successful housing development sector,” said assistant general manager and chief development financing officer at The Jamaica National Group, Carlton Earl Samuels, who pointed to other challenges that need to be addressed in the sector. He cited project budgets as examples, where figures have been understated, as the developers fail to either factor in the full cost of the development outside of the financing being sought, or to correctly outline the scope of the project.

Samuels also called for purchasers to be educated about certificates of practical completion issued by architects. The certificate is often used as a contractual document to allow a client to take possession of a building. Samuels outlined that there have been instances where purchasers who are issued the document lodge complaints when it becomes apparent that the units are not yet ready to be inhabited. He said more sensitisation will be required to inform stakeholders about what a legitimate document should look like and the terms under which they can be issued.

In the meantime, architect, Dr Patricia Green, who was also a panellist during the webinar, explained that the architect’s contract can sometimes lead to circumstances where purchasers receive certificates for projects that are practically incomplete.

“The architect’s contract may have been specific to certain items and so the practical completion and the certificate would be with regard to those specific items under the architect’s contract,” she said.

She suggests that architects send samples of certificates to all financiers and building societies to ensure all parties have an idea of what they look like. But another architect, Robert Fowler, argued that there may be situations where the certificates are not being issued by qualified professionals. He said it is possible that the certificates are being issued by other persons named in contracts, noting that he suspects that for several ongoing projects, there is no architect being engaged in the final stages.

“An architect may have done the drawings and may have gone as far as getting approval but that becomes the end of their involvement,” he said while charging financial institutions to insist that these persons are registered professionals.

As part of the solution, the panellists also called on municipal corporations, the regulatory authorities, to be more consistent in inspecting projects and issuing occupancy certificates which would ensure that purchasers get what they agreed to.