Properties Jamaica | Jamaica Real Estate Portal

At a press conference yesterday at the National Housing Trust (NHT) head office in New Kingston, NHT Chairman Howard Mitchell announced five new initiatives that are aimed at making it easier for Jamaicans to own a home. The initiatives are:

1. Short-term lease arrangement – NHT contributors who are hard-pressed for cash, may enter into a  3 year lease agreement with the Trust under what has been dubbed a Short-Term Lease Facility. During this period, the contributor will be required to pay 15% of the property cost in monthly lease payments. At the end of three years, the contributor will be converted to a NHT mortgagor, with access to the balance of the property’s purchase price.
2. Shared equity loan arrangement – specially for contributors who can’t afford the full or subsidized price of an NHT scheme unit. It allows the successful applicant to jointly share ownership of their units with the NHT. Applicants are required to own at least a 60 per cent stake in the property and can purchase the NHT’s share at any time.
3. Combined loan programme – existing programme revised so that spouses who are qualified contributors can access a total combined loan of $7 million.
4. Use of NHT contributions to help meet loan funding gap – loan applicants can access up to 50% of their contributions to the Trust in order to bridge funding gaps between the loan amount they can afford from the NHT, and the price of the unit or lot they’re purchasing.
5. Extension of the maximum loan term – the NHT has now extended its maximum loan repayment period from 30 to 40 years, or upon the contributor reaching age 70, whichever comes first.

The short-term lease arrangement, combined loan programme and the extended loan term facility took effect yesterday, while the contributions for deposit facility will not be accessible until April 10, 2010. The implementation date for the shared equity facility will be announced at a later date.