Susan GordonBusiness Reporter

A section of the National Housing Trust offices, recently renamed for former Prime Minister Michael Manley. NHT will invest billions in four housing projects in two western Jamaica - File

The National Housing Trust (NHT) is about to undertake a $2.37 billion investment in four different real estate projects across Trelawny and Hanover on which construction is scheduled to start in 11 months.

Overall, the Trust is using a total of 1,425 acres of land purchased and sourced from various agencies at a total cost of $902 million, to build out more than 800 housing units and over 500 serviced lots.

The Trust is expecting to start construction on the first set of housing units in January, six months from

now, while the other three are scheduled for implementation over different periods to November 2008.

Cost

NHT anticipates that its cost to build each of the housing units, projected to December 2009, would run to $4.4 million to $5 million, an indication that the houses will hit the market at a premium above those values.

The developments will take place in Hampden, Florence Hall and Granville in Trelawny and Point in Hanover.

However, NHT's largest investment will be in Point, Hanover where it will use $1.33 billion to fund the development of 500 units - a mixture of houses and serviced lots on the 486.84 hectares of land it acquired from the National Housing Development Corporation for $845 million.

Senior General Manager, Construction and Development at the NHT, Donald Moore, also told the Financial Gleaner, that the trust would use parts of land in the Jamaica Teachers' Association (JTA) housing portfolio taken over by the NHT to build some 36 two-bedroom units and 53 serviced lots at Granville in Trelawny.

The land is valued at $2.5 million, a fraction of the $89 investment the mortgage company is putting into the Granville project.

The development in Florence Hall is a joint venture project with private developer New Falmouth Development to be done on 55.04 hectares of land valued at $48 million.

There the Trust, in a $657 million investment, will construct 450 two-bedroom units and 300 serviced lots measuring 372 square metres each.

Moore said the real estate project in Hampden is a sugar housing project which should provide 100 solutions for regular NHT contributors, adding there are not enough sugar workers to occupy all of the available serviced lots.

The first development in January at a cost of just under $300 million will provide 100 two-bedroom units, 60 one-bedroom units and 111 serviced lots on 27 hectares of land valued at $6.75 million by the National Land Agency.

Moore said that where the Trust has entered into partnerships requiring loan financing, the capital is issued at 8 per cent to 12 per cent in keeping with the conditions of the joint venture agreement.

NHT's contribution of land, and technical assistance on planning and development, is categorised, he said, as equity.