HAJ Eyes 100 Acres in St Thomas as Housing Drive Moves East

Kingston, Jamaica, 13 July 2026

The Housing Agency of Jamaica has moved to the on-site assessment phase for approximately 100 acres of land at Easington, St Thomas, currently owned by the St Thomas Municipal Corporation. If the agency proceeds with acquisition, the Easington site would become one of the more significant new housing land banks to enter the pipeline in the eastern parishes, reinforcing a development corridor that has been building steadily since the prime minister’s commitment to 10,000 new homes in St Thomas over the next three years.

The process began with a desk assessment of the National Land Agency website and topographical mapping. The site visit, which was scheduled for mid-June, allows HAJ representatives to conduct ground-level evaluation before making a final determination on whether to proceed with purchase. The NHT is also expected to conduct its own independent site assessment. The St Thomas Municipal Corporation has been working through the year to subdivide the Easington property ahead of its eventual disposal, with parallel plans to regularise existing occupants on sections of the site by providing them with land titles.

St Thomas as Jamaica’s Next Housing Frontier

The convergence of multiple actors, the HAJ, the NHT, the Municipal Corporation, and private developers like Rozelle Properties, on St Thomas land in the same season is not coincidental. The prime minister stated at the Rozelle Estate groundbreaking in May that St Thomas benefits from proximity to the Kingston Metropolitan Area, available land, water infrastructure already in place, and a government policy actively supporting housing development along this corridor. That combination of public infrastructure and explicit policy support is exactly what draws institutional housing investment toward a particular geography.

For landowners in St Thomas, that policy signal has a practical value: the institutional appetite for land purchases in the parish is high. Landowners with parcels of appropriate topography, accessible road connections, and clean title are in a stronger negotiating position than at any point in recent memory. For buyers looking at residential property in St Thomas, the development pipeline points toward increasing supply over the next two to three years, which has mixed implications: more housing choice and potentially more competitive pricing in the medium term, but also the likelihood that new developments in well-located areas will continue to attract strong demand and hold value.

What Easington Signals About Land Formalisation

The Easington story also illustrates how the government is trying to handle the intersection of existing informal occupation and planned housing development. Rather than displacing occupants or proceeding with a clean disposal that ignores established residents, the Municipal Corporation has built a regularisation pathway into the subdivision process. Those already living on sections of the site will have the opportunity to obtain land titles. New housing development will be pursued on the balance of the land. It is a model that attempts to balance housing delivery, land tenure security, and community stability in a way that purely commercial land disposal typically does not. Whether it works in practice at Easington will be worth watching.

Follow Jamaica Homes on Youtube @jamaicahomes and Instagram @jamaica_homes and on Facebook @jamaicahomesnews Send us a message or email us at onlinefeedback@jamaica-homes.com or editor@jamaica-homes.com