Clarendon to see $18b in housing development from Trust

THE NATIONAL Housing Trust (NHT) will be injecting $18 billion into the local economy through housing developments in Clarendon over the next three-and-a-half years.

Board Chairman at the NHT Ambassador Dr Nigel Clarke made the announcement in Clarendon last Friday at the ground breaking ceremony for an additional 351 housing solutions for the Monymusk Country Estate Phase Two. Of this number, Clarke said 100 units would be exclusively reserved for sugar industry workers who are yet to own a home or are having difficulties with same.

“The Monymusk Country Estate will have all the modern and basic amenities that come with development, including paved roads, proper drainage systems and provisions for recreational activities, among other things,” he explained.

The Monymusk Country Estate project is one of nine housing schemes to be developed in Clarendon by 2020.

8,500 MORTGAGES

In addition, Clarke said the NHT plans to issue 8,500 mortgages this year to purchase homes from the NHT or on the open market.

“We are in the business of creating affordable housing solutions, which is important because so many Jamaicans, though they may desire to, don’t have their own home and, for the most part, we are a historically dispossessed people and so home ownership plays a significant role in the psychology of the Jamaican individual,” the board chairman lamented.

“Housing developments such as these provide regular accommodation instead of the irregular means in which some people often find themselves. This regularisation improves social outcomes, improves order in society and it makes us a better people and a better society in general,” he added.