36,000 Mortgages Resuming. What Happens Next?

Kingston, Jamaica, 29 June 2026

More than 30,000 National Housing Trust mortgage accounts were given a six-month moratorium following Hurricane Melissa’s landfall in October 2025. Those accounts were concentrated in seven of the most affected parishes: St James, Trelawny, Westmoreland, St Elizabeth, St Ann, Manchester and Hanover. The moratorium window closed at the end of April 2026. Mortgagors who need more time have until 30 June to request a further extension of up to three months. After that date, the NHT will treat remaining accounts as no longer needing support unless they have proactively made contact.

What the Moratorium Covered and What It Didn’t

During the moratorium, the NHT waived interest charges for accounts that were not already in the zero per cent bracket. However, principal payments and insurance charges continued to accrue throughout the period. That distinction matters because when the moratorium ends and accounts are recalculated, some mortgagors will find their monthly payment has increased. The NHT is issuing formal notifications with revised payment details, but until those letters arrive, contributors have been advised to continue making their pre-moratorium payment amounts.

For mortgagors who have their payments deducted directly from salary, there is an additional complication: the salary deduction may not have restarted automatically. Those contributors are responsible for ensuring their employer has reinstated the arrangement, or making payments manually in the interim.

The Broader Implication for Housing Finance

The scale of the moratorium, 36,000 accounts in a single intervention, reflects both the magnitude of Melissa’s impact and the extent to which mortgage finance is woven into the fabric of Jamaican homeownership. For many of those 36,000 households, the six months of paused payments represented the difference between keeping a home and losing it at the moment of greatest vulnerability. As the support window closes, the NHT has made its ongoing Special Assistance Programme available to those who remain financially challenged but do not qualify for the special extension. The terms include temporary payment moratoria, reduced interest rates, extended loan tenures and structured partial payments. The machinery exists. Using it depends on affected mortgagors making contact early enough to access it.