OPPOSITION spokesman on housing and sustainable living Senator Floyd Morris has dismissed Prime Minister Dr Andrew Holness’s claim that his Administration is the one with the plan to increase housing access for Jamaicans.

During a ground-breaking ceremony for Brookside Estate Housing Development in Spot Valley, St James, last Friday Holness poured cold water on the Opposition’s promise to allocate $1 billion in grants that young, aspiring homeowners can use towards their deposit.

While admitting that the Government still has a way to go in meeting the demand for affordable housing, the prime minister urged aspiring homeowners to closely examine promises made by his party versus the Opposition People’s National Party (PNP), to determine if they are implementable.

“Our housing policy is thoughtful. Our housing policy is not just aspirational, it is practical and realistic. If you really want a house, then this is the housing policy to support — the policy that is comprehensive, the policy that understands the challenges, and the policy that is consistent,” Holness said.

But in a media release on Monday Morris charged that the Holness Administration has failed miserably in providing affordable houses for Jamaicans over the past nine years.

According to Morris, “In 2020 Prime Minister Holness promised to build 70,000 houses over a five-year period, however data is showing that he is nowhere near achieving this target. The Holness Administration has been delivering to the market, on average, 2,300 houses annually over the past nine years. If this is not a failure, I don’t know what else is.”

He added: “The Fiscal Policy Paper of 2025 indicated that the National Housing Trust (NHT) should have completed 15,009 housing units for the fiscal year 2024-25. However, only 2,754 houses were completed.

“Over the past nine years this Government has abandoned the low-income earners who have been contributing to the NHT. Approximately 48 per cent of the contributors to the NHT are individuals earning below $30,000 per week but the Holness Administration has dismally neglected the housing needs of these individuals. Now, because it is an election year, is suddenly talking about the need to build low-income houses.”

Morris charged that the Government is not creating affordable housing solutions.

“Prime Minister Holness’s Administration built houses at Ruthven Towers for $28 million to $38 million, and the development has been bedeviled with all manner of problems. Similarly, through the Housing Agency of Jamaica they have sold housing lots on the market for between $25 and $30 million in a development just above Pines of Karachi. None of these constitute affordable houses,” said Morris.

He argued that when the Portia Simpson Miller-led PNP Administration left office in 2016, a one-bedroom unit was being sold for less than $7 million and a two-bedroom for approximately $12 million.

“However, these prices have increased dramatically under the Holness-led Administration. A one-bedroom is being sold for over $12 million and a two-bedroom for over $18 million. These are out of the reach of ordinary, working class Jamaicans,” said Morris.

He declared his endorsement of the plethora of housing ideas put forward by his party leader, Mark Golding, in the 2025-2026 Budget Debate.

Among the proposals put forward by Golding were an end to the annual extraction of $11.4 billion from the NHT to support the budget, and the construction of 50,000 houses over the next five years.