Montego Bay, Jamaica — 15 October 2024
The National Housing Trust has announced a pipeline of 3,531 housing solutions for St. James, a parish that has seen massive tourism-driven growth in its primary city but chronic undersupply of affordable worker housing relative to that growth. The disclosure was made at the handover of the NHT’s Union Acres housing scheme in Irwin, St. James, a 144-unit project delivered in partnership with the Jamaica Confederation of Trade Unions and the Jamaica Civil Service Association, with 50 units handed over in the first tranche.
The 3,531 total includes a broad range of projects at different stages. The Community Renewal Programme is delivering 86 units in Canterbury, with construction beginning in February 2025 and a target completion of August 2026. An additional 180 units are planned for Comfort in St. James, commencing in June 2025 with the same August 2026 target date. These projects address specific St. James communities where housing need is acute and where the NHT is combining new construction with community infrastructure investment.
Why St. James Needs 3,531 Housing Solutions
St. James is Jamaica’s second-most economically significant parish by GDP, driven by the tourism industry concentrated in and around Montego Bay. The parish’s hotel, hospitality, retail, and service economy employs tens of thousands of workers, and those workers need somewhere to live. The previous article in this series documented the identification of nearly 4,000 worker housing units needed to address the gap created by Montego Bay’s tourism boom. The NHT’s 3,531-solution pipeline is the supply-side response to that documented need.
The Estuary housing project in Friendship, St. James — a $7 billion joint venture development for which ground was broken in 2019 — is the most significant individual contributor to the parish’s housing pipeline. Beyond Estuary, the NHT is using its Community Renewal Programme and joint venture mechanisms to extend delivery across multiple St. James communities simultaneously, rather than concentrating all effort in a single large development.
Trade Union Partnership at Union Acres
The Union Acres development is notable for its delivery model. Partnering with the Jamaica Confederation of Trade Unions and the Jamaica Civil Service Association means that the 144 units were specifically targeted at union members and civil servants — the organised, PAYE-contributing workforce for whom NHT loan access is most straightforward. The partnership model leverages employer and union affiliations to identify buyers with established contribution histories, reducing the friction between NHT housing supply and the NHT-eligible buyer pool.
Fifty units handed over in the first tranche means the scheme is delivering in stages rather than all at once, which is operationally normal for projects of this size. The remaining 94 units will follow as construction phases complete.
“The NHT’s St. James pipeline of 3,531 units is one of the most significant housing commitments to any single parish outside of the Kingston Metropolitan Area,” said Dean Jones, Managing Director of Jamaica Homes. “It reflects the scale of unmet need in Montego Bay and St. James, and the recognition that Jamaica’s tourism economy cannot sustainably employ the workforce it needs if that workforce cannot afford to live within reasonable distance of the work. Housing supply is economic infrastructure in Montego Bay. The NHT is treating it that way.”
The Broader Context
The NHT has committed to delivering 43,000 of the government’s total 70,000-housing-solution target. With 35,000 of those at various stages of development, the Trust’s pipeline management across multiple parishes simultaneously — St. James, St. Catherine, Kingston, Westmoreland, and others — requires coordinated execution at a scale the institution has not historically operated at. The St. James component is one of the more complex pieces: a parish with acute need, land constraints around Montego Bay proper, and significant community diversity in what housing product is appropriate for which location.
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