A difficult journey
Dear Editor,
As I go through the daily grind working as a realtor-associate, I randomly look up listings to sharpen my knowledge of the market, and I have found it difficult to identify properties that could qualify for the National Housing Trust’s (NHT) Open Market Loan.
While the interest rates are below the average mortgage market rate, the loan principal is lacking.
With a mortgage loan of up to $6.5 million for individuals, the only hope of finding a house on the open market lies in combining benefits with family members to get the maximum amount of $19.5 million, which is respectable but won’t give you a dream house, neither will you be able to buy much in Kingston, a large population centre with high demand.
Needless to say, the one who gets a $6.5-million mortgage has to find a residential lot and source the money for the construction of a respectable abode, whether by construction loan or out of pocket, and will have to pay for contractors, materials, workmen, building and planning permissions, etc.
The typical NHT applicant may only have the bankroll for closing costs and maybe a small downpayment, which would severely hinder his or her ability to get the financing for the construction.
And note that I said a mortgage loan of up to $6.5 million. There are applicants who may get $3 million. I wonder if those officials at NHT have a grasp on reality and take note of the fact that the real estate market does not make it easy for people offering $6.5 million mortgage financing, let alone $3 million.
Note that the average NHT buyer is primarily lower-income earners as the middle- to high-income earners mix their NHT benefits with that of private lenders.
NHT mortgagers are stuck with two options: either find a parcel of land in a remote location to build on (assuming that they can get materials and the planning and building permissions) and hope that another NHT buyer hasn’t reached it or go to an auction held by a realtor and hope that at the auction there isn’t a single soul that has more money than them.
Instead of just raising the amount of applicants that can pool benefits together, it would also be much better to raise the maximum principal to $10 million, at least, because the current mortgage principal being provided by the NHT does not reflect the current reality of the real estate market.
While it may increase the amount of money in the system, causing some upward push to price, especially in high-demand markets, it would allow NHT applicants to have a better range of choices than if they had only $3 million.
Also, the NHT should realise that they are the last bank of the poor who credit unions and banks call sub-prime borrowers. The NHT is their last hope of acquiring property, the best form of economic enfranchisement, a thing that has been the moot point of our Emancipation as a people and an important driving force of decolonisation.
Instead of being another piggy bank for which the Government can take money, it should be left alone (and even given more money) to finance mortgages of up to $10 million or more, if they can, so that people can get proper residential lots to build on, if not proper housing.
Marcus White whitemarc918@gmail.com