Property News Jamaica

A quarterly review of Jamaica’s property market from July to September 2016, examining the early months of the Andrew Holness JLP government’s economic stewardship, the Bank of Jamaica’s continued rate easing, a summer tourism season that delivered improved arrivals data over the prior year, and a residential market that was, through the third quarter, showing the early evidence of the demand recovery that the improving macro environment and declining mortgage rates were beginning to release.

A quarterly review of Jamaica’s property market from April to June 2016, examining the sector in the months immediately following the Andrew Holness JLP’s narrow election victory in February, as the market assessed the new government’s economic intentions and the IMF programme’s continuity, the BOJ maintained its rate easing direction, and the residential market operated in the cautious conditions of a transition period whose resolution into stable policy would, the evidence of the second quarter suggested, be broadly positive for the market’s medium-term trajectory.

A quarterly review of Jamaica’s property market from January to March 2016, dominated by the February 25 general election that returned Andrew Holness and the JLP to government after four years in opposition, the property market’s characteristic pause during the election period as buyers and developers awaited policy clarity, a winter tourism season that performed solidly despite the electoral backdrop, and a residential sector whose underlying demand recovery was suspended by the uncertainty that any close election creates, ready to resume once the new government’s economic intentions became clear.

A quarterly review of Jamaica’s property market from October to December 2015, a quarter that delivered the now-customary diaspora Christmas season of property interest and closed with the announcement of a February 2016 general election that immediately introduced the uncertainty premium that election campaigns impose on market activity. The BOJ’s rate easing continued, the IMF EFF programme marked further milestones, and the residential market produced the year-end activity that the improving conditions supported while the political calendar began to shadow the outlook for the first quarter of 2016.

A quarterly review of Jamaica’s property market from July to September 2015, examining a sector in the constrained conditions of the IMF Extended Fund Facility programme’s third year, with the Bank of Jamaica’s gradual rate easing beginning to improve mortgage affordability at the margins, a summer tourism season that performed solidly if unspectacularly, a residential market whose transaction volumes remained below the levels that recovering demand would eventually generate, and the strata apartment sector beginning to establish itself as the segment most capable of generating momentum in the tight conditions of the austerity years.

A quarterly review of Jamaica’s property market from April to June 2015, with the IMF Extended Fund Facility programme’s fiscal disciplines still the dominant constraint on household income and consumer confidence, but the Bank of Jamaica’s gradual rate easing delivering progressive improvement in mortgage affordability, a shoulder tourism season performing ahead of the prior year, and the strata apartment sector establishing its first genuine pipeline of concurrent projects whose construction activity was beginning to reshape Kingston’s residential supply picture in ways that the coming years would make significant.

A quarterly review of Jamaica’s property market from January to March 2015, examining a sector that opened the year in the constrained conditions of the IMF programme’s second full year, with a strong winter tourism season providing the most positive demand-side input, the BOJ’s rate easing beginning to deliver the mortgage affordability improvements that its logic promised, a diaspora January cohort providing solid property market activity, and the strata apartment sector establishing itself as the residential segment most capable of generating momentum in conditions that still significantly constrained the primary residence buyer.

A quarterly review of Jamaica’s property market from October to December 2014, the final quarter of what was arguably the most constrained year of the IMF Extended Fund Facility programme’s early implementation, with the Christmas diaspora season providing the property market its most dependable seasonal demand window, the Bank of Jamaica’s newly initiated rate easing beginning to generate the first improvements in mortgage affordability, and a residential market whose transaction volumes remained suppressed by the combined weight of programme-era income compression and the financing costs that the rate easing was only beginning to address.

A quarterly review of Jamaica’s property market from July to September 2014, deep in the constrained conditions of the IMF Extended Fund Facility programme’s first full year of implementation, with summer tourism delivering modest improvement over the prior year, the BOJ’s rate environment still elevated but the earliest signals of potential easing beginning to emerge, the residential market operating with the suppressed transaction volumes and cautious buyer behaviour that the income compression and financing costs of the austerity environment produced, and the strata apartment concept in its earliest commercial development stages in Kingston.

A quarterly review of Jamaica’s property market from April to June 2014, exactly one year after the IMF Extended Fund Facility agreement’s signing, with the fiscal consolidation’s full effects now visible in the property market’s suppressed transaction volumes and constrained buyer purchasing power, a tourism sector performing below the recovery pace its operators had been targeting, a Kingston residential market in which extended time-on-market and negotiated price reductions were the defining features, and the strata apartment concept in its earliest commercial stages with a handful of pioneer projects testing the market’s depth.

A quarterly review of Jamaica’s property market from January to March 2014, the first winter season of the IMF Extended Fund Facility programme’s full implementation, examining a market adapting to the tightest financing and income conditions of the decade, a diaspora January season that provided the most concentrated demand window of the quarter, the Bank of Jamaica maintaining its elevated policy rate environment, tourism sector occupancy recovering only slowly, and a residential market whose sellers were learning, with varying degrees of acceptance, the revised price expectations that the constrained buyer pool was imposing.

A quarterly review of Jamaica’s property market from October to December 2013, seven months into the IMF Extended Fund Facility programme’s operation following the historic National Debt Exchange of February 2013 and the May agreement, with the fiscal consolidation disciplines now fully embedded in the economic framework, a Christmas diaspora season providing the quarter’s most concentrated property demand, the BOJ maintaining its elevated rate environment, and a residential market absorbing the initial full impact of the austerity conditions on buyer purchasing power and transaction confidence.

A quarterly review of Jamaica’s property market from July to September 2013, the first complete quarter of the IMF Extended Fund Facility programme’s operation following its May 2013 signing and the National Debt Exchange of February, examining the initial market response to the fiscal consolidation framework, the summer tourism season’s performance against the sector’s recovery aspirations, the property market’s adjustment to the elevated BOJ rate environment, and the early evidence of the demand-side compression that the programme’s disciplines would increasingly produce through the quarters ahead.

A quarterly review of Jamaica’s property market from April to June 2013, a quarter defined by the signing of the IMF Extended Fund Facility agreement in May following February’s National Debt Exchange, as the property market and its participants absorbed the implications of Jamaica’s most significant fiscal restructuring in the modern era, a residential market beginning its adjustment to the tighter economic conditions the consolidation framework would impose, and a tourism sector continuing its gradual post-crisis recovery through a shoulder season that delivered steady if modest performance.

A quarterly review of Jamaica’s property market from January to March 2013, dominated by the historic National Debt Exchange of February that restructured Jamaica’s domestic debt as the precondition for the IMF Extended Fund Facility agreement then being finalised, a winter tourism season that delivered solid performance against the backdrop of significant economic uncertainty, a residential market in which the diaspora January cohort remained active while the wider buyer pool absorbed the implications of the NDX and the IMF programme that was widely expected to follow it, and a property sector whose medium-term trajectory was in the process of being determined by events whose full consequences would only be visible in the quarters ahead.