MONTEGO BAY, Jamaica — Prime Minister Andrew Holness has announced a social housing initiative aimed at tourism workers, pairing the Tourism Enhancement Fund (TEF) with the Government’s New Social Housing Programme (NSHP) to address one of the industry’s most persistent problems: where its staff can afford to live.
The Prime Minister made the announcement on January 20 at a groundbreaking ceremony for a private residential development in Montego Bay, St. James, according to the Jamaica Information Service.
Land secured in resort areas
Mr. Holness said the Government had instructed the Housing Agency of Jamaica (HAJ) and the National Housing Trust (NHT) to bring housing solutions for tourism workers to market, and that both agencies had already secured land in areas with heavy tourism activity.
Hotel groups are also stepping in. International operators including RCD Hotels, Bahia Principe and Princess Resorts have committed to building more than 2,000 residential units for their employees. Separately, the Government plans to construct 500 additional houses under the NSHP during the 2024/2025 fiscal year.
A programme with a wider brief
The NSHP was set up in 2018 to improve living conditions for the country’s most disadvantaged households and is administered through the Ministry of Economic Growth and Job Creation. Linking it to the TEF, which is funded by the tourism sector, broadens its reach to a workforce that often earns too little to buy in the resort towns where it works.
The development where the announcement was made, located at Reading in Montego Bay, is being built by LCH Developments and is expected to take four years to complete.
What it means for renters and investors
In Montego Bay, Negril, Ocho Rios and along the north coast, hotel workers compete for rooms with a growing short-term rental market, pushing many into long commutes or informal settlements. More than 2,000 employer-built units plus state-backed schemes could take some pressure off the lower end of the rental market in these towns. Investors who rely on long-term tenants from the hotel workforce should factor that in, while workers hoping to benefit should keep their NHT contributions current and watch for announcements from the HAJ and NHT on eligibility and applications.
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