For most Jamaicans, the country’s biggest buildings are things you walk past, not things you can own. The Government now says it is prepared to look at rules that could change that.
KINGSTON, Jamaica, 12 November 2026
What was said this week
At the opening of the US$4.3 million Rousseau Road Commercial Complex in Kingston on Tuesday, the Prime Minister addressed calls for dedicated legislation for real estate investment trusts, known as REITs. According to the Jamaica Information Service, he said he was not opposed to examining the fiscal rules for how such trusts distribute profits, provided they are concentrated in areas of strategic national interest, such as logistics that support the port.
He also said that improvements within the current regulatory environment can be implemented quickly to support large scale real estate development. No dedicated REIT Bill has been tabled, and no timetable was announced.
What a REIT would mean
In plain terms, a REIT is a vehicle that lets people buy a share in income producing property, such as warehouses or offices, without having to purchase a whole building. The idea is that pension funds, small savers and other investors could take a stake in the rents, rather than leaving large commercial assets in the hands of a few owners.
Our cartoon shows that promise in one picture: shopkeepers, nurses, teachers, pensioners and young families holding SHARE tickets and reaching for slices of a building marked REIT. The building is still being pulled apart into pieces. The tickets are in people’s hands, but the rules are not yet in place.
The other legislative track
The same address, as reported by the Jamaica Information Service, said the Government is advancing plans for legislation to establish business improvement districts, including tourism districts. The Prime Minister said that work is almost there, and that such districts could let owners and operators share costs such as security and encourage clustering of similar businesses.
He also said legislation is being examined to preserve the rights of people who own land, while making it quicker to change the use of properties that are not realising their full value, a process that can sometimes take longer than the construction itself.
What to watch next
The opening itself, by Kingston Properties Limited at 11 Rousseau Road, is a reminder of the kind of building a REIT might one day hold: commercial space aimed at smaller firms that need somewhere to receive goods and run a business under one roof. Whether ordinary Jamaicans ever get to own a share of buildings like it will depend on the rules that follow, not on the speech alone.
A share of the building is an attractive idea, but it will remain only an idea until the rules are written.
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