MONTEGO BAY St James — Managing director and owner of Barnett Limited Mark Kerr-Jarrett has proposed low-income, high-density, apartment-style units that cost less than $10 million each, as a way to make housing more accessible to more Jamaicans.

However, he suggested some level of tax exemption is one vital part of achieving his vision, but Minister of Legal and Constitutional Affairs Marlene Malahoo Forte has expressed concern about his suggestion for a revenue waiver.

According to Kerr-Jarrett — a well-respected developer whose company is behind many major projects in Montego Bay — affordable housing does not necessarily have to conform to the long-held image of a house. He pointed out that it just has to be a residential unit that can be purchased with assistance from National Housing Trust (NHT). The idea is to go up, and maximise land use.

“The proposal is that it should be a three- or four-storey walk-up [with units] between 850 to about 1,000 square feet each — a two-bedroom, single-bathroom unit,” he explained during a Global Services Association of Jamaica breakfast forum.

The event was held at Grand-A-View Restaurant and Event Place in Montego Bay last Thursday, under the theme ‘Beyond the desk — building foundations for productivity’. Kerr-Jarrett was one of four panellists discussing: A new, affordable housing solution.

He laid out the conditions that would have to be met in order to make houses available at that price.

“First of all, we have to utilise the Jamaica Special Economic Zones (JSEZ) Act 2016 to the construction site itself so that all the duties and GCT [General Consumption Tax] are waived during the construction process,” he told his audience.

That is the aspect of the proposal which is a hard sell for Malahoo Forte.

“What I hear you say is that the cost is so high that developers will need to be incentivised in many ways. I am of the view that if you have taxes that cannot be reasonably met on a day-to-day basis in doing business, you have to rethink them. It makes no sense to have a tax model that you have to be exempting everyone from in order to make the business affordable. It just doesn’t make sense,” she said.

“What we have done is still abolish some of those taxes. We have gone over at least seven fiscal years without implementing any new taxes and we are now in the process of looking at which of these taxes continue to make sense. But, bear in mind, for every increase [in] services you ask for from Government, those services have to be paid for, and it is tax revenue that allows you to pay for them. We will have to start working out afresh what we are prepared to give in order to get what we want — and that is a conversation that has to be had across the society,” argued Malahoo Forte.

Meanwhile, another aspect of Kerr-Jarrett’s proposal is for utility companies to fund the cost of putting in their infrastructure.

“If you think about it, once the developer creates that customer and then that customer has to pay for the infrastructure over which they are going to be charged for service, it is not equitable — especially at the affordable level,” argued the developer.

Also during the discussion, Kerr-Jarrett referenced another option to providing affordable housing, called workforce housing, which was conceptualised by Pier 1 General Manager Jason Russell. These are dormitory-style accommodations: a single bedroom with a bathroom built around a core where there are dining, laundry and entertainment facilities. It is most suitable for people just leaving high school or college who have entered the workforce but are not yet able to afford a house.

“They need somewhere they can rent; somewhere they can live and on the weekends they go home to whatever part of the country they live. But they need somewhere to live during the week which is affordable,” he argued.

He suggested that property owned by Jamaica Railway Corporation (JRC) in the city of Montego Bay could be utilised for the development of such mixed-used solutions.

Responding to the moderator’s question on how the Government could partner with developers to deliver the two options Kerr-Jarrett placed on the table, mayor of Montego Bay Richard Vernon suggested Barracks Road, Albion, and Vernon Drive in Mt Salem as three communities where these types of housing solutions could potentially work. He said these areas are high on the Government’s agenda.

Vernon also revealed that while some developers may complain about building fees, St James Municipal Corporation — which he leads — has one of the lowest fees on the island.

“We are even facilitating the idea of lowering the fees even further to facilitate low-income developers and persons who are coming in with environmentally friendly designs,” the mayor added.

For her part, Malahoo Forte — who is also Member of Parliament (MP) for St James West Central — reminded the gathering that there is a legal requirement to provide access for persons with disability.

“On one front it looks like the absence of a lift will reduce the cost but there are certain things to note that cannot be negotiated going forward. Even as we talk about affordable housing we have to look at what are the basics in a new framework. Some things are not negotiable. They have to be complied with locally and as part of our international arrangements,” she stressed.