Alarm as shady developers blamed for home price spike
Published:Wednesday | June 15, 2022 | 12:13 AM
Concerns are being raised by residents of middle-income communities in St Andrew about the background of housing developers, who are being accused of pricing low-income earners out of homes.
The matter emerged during Tuesday’s virtual protest involving residents of 24 communities across Kingston and St Andrew where the parishes’ municipal corporation and the National Environment and Planning Agency were accused of allowing developers a loose leash to breach planning and development legislation.
The organisation of groups called Citizens’ Right to the City (CRC) said the unregulated pace at which developers are allowed to build is worsening social inequality because of meteoric housing prices.
“What we have unleashed with the 2017 development order is a bonanza of speculation in the Kingston and St Andrew environs and elsewhere, where prime real estate is being snapped up,” said CRC member Carol Narcisse.
The 2017 order, made under Section 5 of the Town and Country Planning Act, provides for a wide variety of matters regarding the administration and development of the areas of Kingston and St Andrew and the Pedro Cays. Issues regulated by the order include, among other things, planning permission for development, control of subdivision of land, and consultation with national authorities by the local planning authority before granting planning permission and appeals.
Narcisse said lands are not being acquired for mixed housing in order to meet the needs of a broad cross section of income levels, but in a “mad frenzy” to build out high-end developments for no clear market.
“This is why a lot of them are half-empty, creating other issues in the city. There are developers very clearly with funds they can invest in developments without caring whether they are actually sold or rented.
“... The minister of national security made a point in Parliament commenting on the issue of money laundering and the extent to which that might be taking place in the housing development sector, and it is something the media need to follow the minister of national security up about,” said Narcisse.
National Security Minister Dr Horace Chang said, in February, that three of the country’s top investigative agencies had set their sights on the real estate market, where ill-gotten money is being channelled to fund construction projects.
Chang told Parliament that he was expecting to see results this year from the probes being carried out by the Financial Investigations Division, the Major Organised Crime and Anti-Corruption Agency, and the Counter-Terrorism and Organised Crime and Investigation Branch.
Narcisse said that the CRC is not only concerned with the rush to “seemingly build out every square inch of the city” but also the lack of options for lower-income Jamaicans brackets in new or ageing developments.
“Even NHT (National Housing Trust) has joined the merry band, putting in housing at a cost that most of the contributors cannot meet,” said Narcisse, hinting at the controversial Ruthven Towers apartments with maximum prices near $40 million.
“So, a big planning question is, what is the vision and how inclusive is it to be for the majority of citizens to have decent housing and access to decent housing as part of their basic rights?” she questioned.