KINGSTON, Jamaica – With the National Housing Trust (NHT) loan financing now up to $8.5 million to a single applicant, the Government has incentivised the housing market to deliver more affordable houses.

The assertion was made by Prime Minister, Andrew Holness, while delivering the keynote address at the handover of a two-bedroom unit built under the New Social Housing Programme (NSHP), in Devon, Manchester, recently, where he said the move had made mortgages “more robust”.

“What we have done is create an incentive in the market to send a signal to developers to bring housing solutions to the market that are within the affordable range. If you produce those houses, the persons who are buying them will be assisted with greater level of mortgage,” Holness said.

Holness said signals are important to the housing market, and he is certain that developers are assessing how they can bring to the market housing units that people can afford, adding that “the NHT will come with mortgage solutions that fit your income”.

He also pointed out that there are persons, based on their income-earning activities, who don’t have regular funds, and “we need to create mortgage instruments that match the flow of the income of the potential homeowners”.

Holness said the NHT is now focusing its resources on building low-income houses for the particular income earners “which are the underserved and the largest segment of the market”.

The National Housing Trust was set up by the Government to lend money at low interest rates to contributors who wish to build, buy, or improve their houses, or wish to buy or build on lots.

The NHT also develops housing schemes for sale to contributors and provides low-cost financing to private developers.

Operating under the Housing, Opportunity, Production and Employment Programme (HOPE), through the Ministry of Economic Growth and Job Creation, the NSHP is geared at improving the housing condition of the country’s most needy population.

– JIS