Letter of the Day | Property tax system needs revamp

THE EDITOR, Madam:

As Jamaica prepares to go to the polls, we are inundated with promises about new housing complexes and development schemes. Yet, one of the most significant drivers of dysfunction in the land and housing market is conspicuously absent from the campaign trail – the perverse incentives embedded in the property tax system.

Under the current regime, property taxes are tied to outdated “unimproved values,” with infrequent revaluations and a flat, low rate structure. In real terms, the cost of holding land has become negligible compared to the market value. This creates an environment where owners can sit on vacant or underutilised urban lots for years, waiting for speculative gains, while working people struggle to find affordable homes. The public, meanwhile, sees little return from the massive increase in private land wealth, despite taxpayers funding the very infrastructure and services that make land appreciate in value in the first place.

Neither of the major parties has seriously addressed this in their manifestos. We hear about how many houses will be built, but not about the broken incentives that make land hoarding so easy or how municipal revenues will keep pace with rapidly rising real estate values. Without tackling the demand-side and structural issues, more supply alone will not fix affordability; it will simply enrich those already positioned to profit.

The solution is neither radical nor new. Jamaica needs a modern property tax policy that is fair and growth-oriented. This includes more regular revaluations so assessed values track market reality, a modest progressive rate structure that makes it more costly to leave prime land idle, and targeted relief or deferrals for pensioners and low-income homeowners so they are not unfairly burdened. Done properly, this would incentivise productive land use, broaden municipal revenues for community services, and help temper speculative price surges.

Elections should be the moment when we debate real solutions to systemic problems, not just swap promises of construction quotas. It is time for our leaders to show the courage to fix a property tax system that rewards inertia and speculation while ordinary Jamaicans pay the price.

JAVON MOATT