The NHT has activated its largest-ever post-disaster financial package for homeowners hit by Hurricane Melissa: a $500,000 grant, a $3.5 million two per cent improvement loan and an automatic six-month mortgage moratorium for 20,000 mortgagors across seven parishes. The instruments are strong. The gap they leave uncovered is larger.

As Melissa threatened Jamaica’s south coast in October 2025, St Elizabeth was still rebuilding from Beryl more than a year earlier. The parish’s communities, many still in partial recovery, faced a Category 5 storm with patched roofs and depleted resources. It is a pattern the country can no longer afford to repeat.

One year after Hurricane Beryl, south coast communities around Black River and Treasure Beach remain in various stages of incomplete recovery. The pattern of storm, inadequate rebuilding and renewed exposure is not a natural disaster cycle. It is a structural failure in Jamaica’s approach to coastal housing resilience.

Dominica is set to hand over more than 380 new climate-resilient homes before the end of 2025, as the government’s Housing Recovery Project reaches 2,900 delivered homes and holds the Caribbean’s first-ever Resilient Housing Fair to raise building standards across the island.

Four consecutive BOJ rate cuts in 2024 brought the policy rate to 6.00%, Hurricane Beryl cost 1.1% of GDP, and mortgage originations rose 12.8%. Jamaica enters 2025 with genuine momentum but unchanged structural challenges. January 2025’s review takes the full measure.

Hurricane Beryl damaged 8,700 homes and contracted Jamaica’s economy by 2.8%, even as the Bank of Jamaica began cutting rates and the NHT announced 15,000 new affordable solutions. October 2024’s review examines a market defined by contradiction — and cautious hope.

After Hurricane Beryl, the NHT opened grants, concessional loans and a mortgage moratorium for affected contributors, a tiered response that became the template for a far larger disaster.

While Beryl knocked out power across much of Black River in July 2024, the Black River Safari emerged unscathed, thanks to proper construction and pre-storm preparation. The contrast with the surrounding town offers a clear lesson about building standards and property resilience.

Hurricane Beryl’s direct hit on Jamaica’s south coast in July 2024 exposed the structural vulnerability of housing in St Elizabeth, particularly in coastal communities around Black River and Parottee. The damage patterns told a consistent story about building standards, land tenure and the limits of informal construction.

Hurricane Beryl made landfall across Jamaica four days ago, devastating southern parishes and exposing the deep vulnerabilities of a housing market already strained by high rates, constrained supply and a 150,000-unit deficit. July 2024’s review examines what the storm means for buyers, renters, and the road ahead.