Homeownership made easier

PAID-UP contributors interested in owning a National Housing Trust (NHT) unit will no longer have to struggle to find a deposit, under one of five new initiatives that the institution rolled out yesterday aimed at making homeownership more affordable.

Senior NHT officials, who made the announcement yesterday, said hard-pressed contributors may instead enter into a three-year lease agreement with the Trust under what has been dubbed a Short-Term Lease Facility.
During this period, the contributor will be required to pay 15 per cent of the property cost in monthly lease payments. At the end of three years, the contributor will be converted to a NHT mortgagor, with access to the balance of the property's purchase price.

Managing director Earl Samuels told journalists yesterday that the NHT, like many institutions in Jamaica, had been impacted by the changing economic environment as many persons had either lost jobs or were earning less in real terms as a result of inflation.

"Irrespective of what is happening, people are still in need of shelter, and the Trust has been wrestling with the problem of providing affordable housing for its contributors even in the midst of shrinking incomes and rising construction costs," said Samuels.

"We're not saying these initiatives will be the answer to everyone's problem, but it's our hope that some of our contributors who are hard-pressed to meet our loan requirements will be able to find homeownership opportunities in some of the initiatives introduced."

The other four initiatives announced yesterday at the NHT's corporate offices in Kingston were Shared Equity Loan Arrangement, Combined Loan Programme, Use of NHT contributions to meet loan-funding shortfall and an extension in maximum long-term loans.

. The Shared Equity Loan Arrangement is designed for contributors who cannot afford the full or subsidised price of an NHT scheme unit and allows successful applicants to jointly share ownership of their units with the NHT. Applicants are required to own at least a 60 per cent stake in the property and can purchase the NHT's share at any time.

. The Trust's revised Combined Loan Policy allows spouses who are qualified contributors to access a total combined loan of $7 million.

. By using their NHT contributions to make up loan-funding shortfalls programme, loan applicants can access up to 50 per cent of their contributions to the Trust to bridge funding gaps between the loan amount they can afford from the NHT and the price of the unit or lot they're purchasing.

. The extension in maximum loan term facility has seen the Trust extending its maximum loan repayment period from 30 to 40 years, or upon the contributor reaching age 70, whichever comes first.

Three of the new initiatives - short-term lease arrangement, combined loan programme and the extended loan term facility took effect yesterday, while the contributions for deposit facility will not be accessible until April 10, 2010. The implementation of the fifth initiative - the shared equity facility - will be announced at a later date.


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