Holness says rent-to-own housing programme coming
Published:Friday | May 20, 2022 | 8:54 PM
WESTERN BUREAU:
The government is promising to ease the demand for housing by allowing Jamaicans to acquire their homes in a rent-to-own arrangement.
"We're going to develop housing, that we can lease the persons, that pay for it over time and then eventually, they can have it,” Prime Minister Andrew Holness announced today.
It comes almost two years after the Opposition People's National Party (PNP) pitched a similar idea in its manifesto for the 2020 general election.
The Prime Minister did not provide any timelines for the rolling out of the initiative.
He was speaking at a handing over ceremony for two, two-bedroom houses in East Central St. James under the social housing programme in his Ministry of Economic Growth and Job Creation.
Under the programme, the government builds houses and delivers them free of cost to poor and needy families across the island.
However, Holness said other housing concepts are on the horizon as the government moves to provide more people with their own homes.
"We're going to develop other modalities such as providing houses that persons can rent,” the prime minister said.
He added: “You might have young people or people who have fallen on hard times - that might become a possibility.”
The PNP's plans included the construction of 130,000 housing solutions over five years to undertake a rent-to-own programme.
READ MORE: PNP pitches rent-to-own housing in election manifesto
The party said under the programme, individuals pay rent for a consistent period, a portion of which goes towards the down payment, later transitioning to ownership through a mortgage.
Meanwhile, Holness has said his administration expects to build 70,000 inexpensive housing solutions in the next five years to tackle the issue of illegal settlements.
- Albert Ferguson
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