Letter of the Day | Jamaica is becoming a country people can live in, but not afford

THE EDITOR, Sir:

Something feels deeply wrong in Jamaica right now, and ordinary people are talking about it everywhere, not just in Parliament or on talk radio, but quietly online, in group chats, on social threads, under YouTube videos, and in conversations happening late at night between exhausted young professionals wondering if they will ever own anything at all.

Across social media, Jamaicans are asking the same question in different ways: “Who exactly is Jamaica being built for?”

Many say they no longer recognise the housing market around them. Apartments are increasingly advertised in US dollars. Rent in parts of Kingston, Portmore, Montego Bay, and even smaller towns now rivals what some people pay overseas. Young workers earning J$150,000 to J$250,000 per month say they still cannot move out of their parents’ homes without drowning financially.

One Jamaican online described the housing market as “a circus.” Another said if your family does not already own land, “you better take a big loan or rent till the end of your days.”

And the frightening thing is that these comments no longer sound exaggerated.

The average worker is watching homes climb into the tens of millions while wages crawl forward inch by inch. Even middle class Jamaicans with degrees and stable jobs increasingly admit they cannot realistically buy near where they work. Nurses, teachers, young professionals, and skilled workers are quietly reaching the conclusion that migration may be easier than survival.

Meanwhile, developers continue building luxury towers with rooftop pools, gyms, concierge services, and imported finishes that many locals can barely dream of entering, much less owning. The country looks more modern, but for many Jamaicans daily life feels less secure.

There is nothing wrong with development. Jamaica needs investment. Jamaica needs growth. Jamaica absolutely needs modern housing. But a society cannot sustainably develop while the people carrying the country on their backs are being economically pushed further and further from the centre of it.

A country begins to lose something important when its teachers cannot afford to live near schools, when police officers commute hours because they cannot buy in the communities they protect, when young couples delay children because rent already consumes most of their salary, and when ordinary Jamaicans start feeling like visitors in their own homeland.

People are not angry because others are investing in Jamaica. They are angry because many feel locked out of the future of Jamaica itself.

Development without belonging eventually becomes displacement.

And perhaps the most dangerous thing of all is this: Jamaicans are slowly normalising conditions that would have outraged previous generations.

That should worry all of us.

JEROME FOSTER