Property News Jamaica

A quarterly review of Jamaica’s property market from April to June 2020, covering the full impact of the COVID-19 pandemic’s acute phase — a near-complete suspension of property transactions as curfews and movement restrictions froze economic activity, tourism shut down entirely, the BOJ cutting rates to a historic 0.50% floor, GDP falling sharply, and a market in suspension rather than collapse — with Jamaica reopening its borders on June 15 at the quarter’s close.

A quarterly review of Jamaica’s property market from January to March 2020, covering a sector that entered the year with solid momentum from a strong 2019, a positive January-February winter season for tourism, and a property market in active transaction before COVID-19 arrived in Jamaica on March 10 and, within weeks, had suspended economic life, shuttered tourism, forced emergency BOJ rate cuts and left the property market in a state of shock that no forecast had prepared it for.

A quarterly review of Jamaica’s property market from October to December 2019, covering a year that would stand as the pre-pandemic benchmark for the island’s property and tourism performance — 2019 tourism arrivals setting a new record, the BOJ continuing its gradual rate easing, a residential property market in active transaction across all price segments, and a construction sector whose strata development pipeline was building the supply that the demographic demand of the 2020s would require.

A quarterly review of Jamaica’s property market from July to September 2019, covering a tourism sector tracking toward what would be its best-ever annual performance, a residential market in steady and healthy transaction across all price segments, the Bank of Jamaica continuing its rate easing cycle, a construction sector with an expanding pipeline of strata development projects, and a general environment of cautious confidence in the island’s economic trajectory as it moved toward a successful exit from its IMF programme.

A quarterly review of Jamaica’s property market from April to June 2019, covering a sector benefiting from improving macroeconomic conditions, the BOJ continuing its gradual easing cycle, tourism delivering another strong quarter on the path to a record annual performance, a residential market with improving transaction volumes, and the strata apartment sector beginning to attract the developer attention that would transform Kingston’s residential landscape over the years ahead.

A quarterly review of Jamaica’s property market from January to March 2019, covering a sector entering the year with its strongest macro foundations in over a decade — the IMF programme delivered, debt on a declining path, tourism at near-record levels, the BOJ easing rates to support growth, and a residential property market responding with improving transaction volumes and the earliest signs of the strata apartment boom that would define the early 2020s.

A quarterly review of Jamaica’s property market from October to December 2018, covering a year that marked the effective completion of Jamaica’s IMF Extended Fund Facility programme, a BOJ continuing its rate easing as inflation came under control, tourism approaching its highest annual performance in years, and a residential property market that had navigated the austerity decade and was emerging with improving fundamentals and early signs of the apartment development trend that would define the years ahead.

A quarterly review of Jamaica’s property market from July to September 2018, covering a summer tourism season performing strongly, the BOJ maintaining its gradual rate easing trajectory, a residential market building transaction momentum as affordability conditions improved, the hurricane season passing without significant Jamaican impact, and a development sector whose strata apartment pipeline was emerging as the sector’s most dynamic supply-side story.

A quarterly review of Jamaica’s property market from April to June 2018, covering a sector operating in the improving but still constrained conditions of a post-austerity economy, the BOJ on a gradual rate easing path as inflation moderated, tourism continuing its recovery trajectory, a residential market in which buyers were beginning to respond to better affordability with more confident purchase decisions, and the early strata apartment development activity that was beginning to reshape Kingston’s residential supply picture.

A quarterly review of Jamaica’s property market from January to March 2018, examining a sector buoyed by a strong winter tourism season and the Bank of Jamaica’s continued rate easing, with the residential market showing improved buyer confidence in Kingston and St Andrew, the NHT programme delivering steady if insufficient affordable housing volumes, and the strata development segment continuing to grow its pipeline as the economy’s IMF programme disciplines delivered incrementally improving fundamentals.

A quarterly review of Jamaica’s property market from October to December 2017, set against the extraordinary regional context of Hurricanes Irma and Maria’s Caribbean devastation in September, the subsequent shift in visitor flows that brought additional arrivals to Jamaica’s largely unscathed resort areas, a strong Christmas diaspora season that generated elevated property interest, and a residential market continuing the gradual recovery that the Bank of Jamaica’s rate easing and the improving macroeconomic fundamentals were supporting.

A quarterly review of Jamaica’s property market from July to September 2017, covering a quarter that will be remembered for the regional catastrophe of Hurricanes Irma and Maria — both Category Five storms that devastated the Leeward Islands, the Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico and Dominica in the final weeks of September while Jamaica was largely spared direct impact, leaving the island’s property market, resort infrastructure and economy intact as the full extent of the regional humanitarian and economic crisis was still unfolding at the time of publication.

A quarterly review of Jamaica’s property market from April to June 2017, examining a sector in the early stages of recovery from the prolonged constraints of the IMF programme years, the Bank of Jamaica continuing its rate easing from the higher mid-decade levels as inflation moderated and the fiscal consolidation programme delivered results, a tourism sector building toward stronger annual performance, and a residential market in which the buyer hesitation of the austerity years was beginning, tentatively and unevenly, to give way to decisions deferred too long.

A quarterly review of Jamaica’s property market from January to March 2017, examining the sector against the backdrop of the Andrew Holness JLP government’s first full year of economic management, the IMF Extended Fund Facility programme’s ongoing fiscal discipline, the Bank of Jamaica’s gradual rate easing from the higher mid-decade levels, a winter tourism season delivering solid performance, and a residential market in which the deferred demand of the austerity years was building toward the release that the improving conditions were making increasingly executable.

A quarterly review of Jamaica’s property market from October to December 2016, set against a quarter that opened with the damaging passage of Hurricane Matthew through Jamaica’s eastern parishes and the subsequent devastation of Haiti, the Andrew Holness JLP government’s ongoing economic management following its February 2016 election victory, a BOJ rate environment in gradual easing, and a residential market still operating under the constraints of the IMF programme years but generating the first evidence of the recovery that the improving macro conditions were making possible.