Kingston, Jamaica — 18 March 2026 The Government has allocated approximately $67 billion towards relief and recovery efforts following Hurricane Melissa, with…

Kingston, Jamaica — 3 March 2026 A major U.S. property investor has announced plans to convert a US$5 billion real estate portfolio…

Homeowners in the NHT’s Estuary scheme in St James, still displaced four months after Melissa, describe waiting too long for peril insurance, grants and clear answers from the trust. Their experience reveals the gap between Jamaica’s well-designed post-disaster housing instruments and the reality of how they reach individual homeowners in crisis.

The NHT’s output is the strongest in its history, yet Jamaica still falls short by some 15,000 homes a year. An honest look at what the Trust is, and what it is being asked to become.

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.

All eligible NHT contributors can now take their annual refund in cash, ending a split that favoured public sector workers. For would-be buyers, it is a quiet boost toward a deposit.

The National Housing Trust has been told to stop building homes above $14 million, a direct attempt to stop public lending from fuelling the price inflation it is meant to ease.

The National Housing Trust has lifted its loan ceiling to $9 million and cut interest rates to as low as zero, a move that reshapes who can realistically afford to own in Jamaica.

A common criticism says the NHT does not build enough houses. But the law that created it framed it as a financier, not a builder. The real question is whether that founding purpose still fits.

Each January, hundreds of thousands of Jamaicans reclaim NHT contributions, billions in all. Used toward a deposit, the refund is a quiet but real building block toward ownership.