NHT unveils new initiatives
Published:Wednesday | September 9, 2009 | 1:01 PM
The National Housing Trust (NHT) has unveiled a raft of initiatives designed to enable more Jamaicans in the lower income bracket to own houses.
Addressing a press conference a short while ago, NHT Chairman Howard Mitchell announced five measures to be implemented to tackle the housing challenges.
The initiatives are a short term lease programme; a shared equity loan arrangement; a combined loan programme; the use of contributions to help meet the loan funding gap and an extension in the maximum loan term from 30 to 40 years.
Three of the five - the short term lease; combined mortgage and extended loan term facilities - take effect today.
Mr. Mitchell says the short term lease will assist persons who are unable to find the deposit to purchase a house but are able to afford the mortgage.
He says the shred equity facility which will take effects at a later date is another affordability enhancing measures.
The contribution for deposit facility is scheduled to come into effect on April 1 2010, the start of the next financial year.
This is intended to offset gap financing requirement.
The NHT has also extended the tenure of loans which had a 15 year repayment period.
As of today these will now carry a 20 year tenure.
And for loans which before today had a 30 year maximum repayment period, the tenure has been extended to a maximum of 40 years or at the time the contributor reaches the age of 70.