Resort Apartment

A Westmoreland hospitality business that has held its property insurance for over 30 years is still waiting for its Melissa claim to be resolved seven months after the storm. The case has become a catalyst for calls on the FSC and parliament to impose minimum standards on insurance claim processing in Jamaica.

Six months after Melissa, business owners across the western parishes are still waiting for insurance payouts. The delays are exposing structural weaknesses in Jamaica’s property and commercial insurance market that the Financial Services Commission and the government are being pressed to address before the next hurricane season.

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.

As Jamaica reckons with the destruction of around 150,000 homes by Hurricane Melissa, container and modular housing is emerging as a serious option. The speed is real, but so are the questions about tenure, land registration and long-term value.

Hurricane Melissa’s destruction of Black River in October 2025 has triggered a housing and land crisis across western Jamaica. With tens of thousands of homes lost, the country faces its most serious rebuilding challenge in modern history.

In the ever-evolving landscape of Jamaica’s resort apartment market, a nuanced narrative unfolds — one that reflects the island’s diverse…