PRIME Minister Andrew Holness says that the Government intends to divest the assets of the Jamaica Mortgage Bank (JMB) shortly to finance construction of some 70,000 houses for “average” Jamaicans.

Speaking at a function honouring contributors to the success of relatively new housing investors, Alfran Development Limited’s Genesis 28 housing project, Waterloo Avenue, St Andrew, on Thursday night, the prime minister said the Government is ready to go ahead with the long-anticipated divestment of the JMB.

“We will probably retain some presence in the bank, in terms of share ownership, but it will become a publicly owned limited liability company, trading publicly on the Jamaica Stock Exchange (JSE),” he told the guests.

“That will increase, in my opinion and in the assessment of the experts, the ability of the Jamaica Mortgage Bank to serve a much wider customer base,” he noted.

“The Government, therefore, will be taking some radical steps in increasing our capacity to be able to deliver housing for all sectors of the economy. But, the focus of Government must be direct and deliberate in ensuring that we can deliver housing for our low income and affordable sectors in the economy,” added the prime minister.

Holness, earlier in his speech, admitted that the Government had found itself in a “chicken and egg” situation, in terms of how it could increase the availability of affordable housing to Jamaicans, while meeting mortgage targets.

Alfran Development Limited is developers of Genesis 28, a contemporary designed luxury apartment building within close proximity to the St Andrew business district.

According to Holness, the NHT already faces the same dilemma as to whether it should use more of its funds to finance mortgages, or to support increased housing development.

“‘We don’t have enough developers to go into affordable housing development, so that persons with low incomes can actually get the mortgages to purchase lower income homes. But, which comes first: mortgages for low-income housing, or funding for the development of housing? We are taking positive steps in ensuring that we can put resources into the development of low income housing solutions while, at the same time, not impacting the availability of mortgages,” he told guests at the event.

“We have found a solution, and I will be speaking about that a little more, but as we reform the architecture, the National Housing Trust’s resources would have to be specifically targeted now to low and affordable income housing. This means that housing for middle income and higher would have to be financed by the private sector. But, the Government owns an asset which is the Jamaica Mortgage Bank,” he argued.

Holness said the Government was not looking at developments like Genesis 28, which was developed as a contemporary designed luxury apartment complex.

“…The strategy of trying to get ahead of the informal developments is important, not only for housing, but it is a very important strategy for the public order of the society. So, we have identified lands on which we are going to build these 70,000 houses, and I will be speaking to that in the near future. I think that we have largely solved the land problem,” he assured the guests..

He said that, however, that the Government has not solved the issue of the construction capacity issue.

“I wanted to encourage companies like Alfran Development, which has conducted itself well in the process of developing Genesis 28, to join the effort,” he stated.