real estate roundup

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.

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.