A senior mortgage expert is urging developers in the housing sector to ensure that their projects are planned and implemented in accordance with the approvals they receive from the government.
The recommendation came from Petal James, chief of branches at JN Bank, during her presentation at a recent real estate development webinar hosted by the Jamaica Mortgage Bank and the Jamaica Development Association.
Miss James noted that The Jamaica National Group, in granting development financing for the construction of housing projects across the country, is very keen about ensuring that projects adhere to the building code and are in line with building permits.
“This is something that we take very seriously, because we want to ensure that any development that gets our seal of approval is built within code. We also do our own checks to confirm the integrity of the project,” she said.
Miss James added that JN assists developers with structuring their construction projects and even goes as far as to monitor the project from start to finish to ensure that they are efficiently executed.
The JN Group will lend up to 80 per cent of the development cost.
“And we even go further to assist with the marketing, advertising, and sale of the units, as well as, processing the mortgages for potential purchasers – whether those purchasers are in Jamaica or throughout the Diaspora. We market these properties in Jamaica and in the Diaspora,” she said.
The Real Estate Board said there was an increase in the number of housing developments that were registered in Jamaica, during 2020, with most of these properties located in Kingston and St Andrew. It said about 95 per cent of developments registered were strata corporations.
The board said that it would be organising further workshops targeted at developers, as there was a 350 per cent increase in 2020 in the number of complaints against developers.
The real estate webinar, which was held under the theme: ‘Developing Jamaica – Recovering Together 2021 and Beyond’, is the first in a series of discussions targeting professionals in the industry.
The topics discussed included the new building code and its effects on the environment, current state of the real estate market and mortgage financing options for development schemes and prospective purchasers.
