Dionne Rose, Business Reporter

The embattled National Housing Development Corporation (NHDC), which is hoping to shed its troubled image by rebranding itself next month, is moving apace with plans to develop new housing solutions on the open market as early as next year.

Joseph Shoucair, managing director of the NHDC, told Sunday Business that the plan is to develop several unused plots of land to build houses below $6 million, including constructing one-bedroom starter units.

Shoucair said the new entity was about to embark on its first major project at Luana, St Elizabeth.

"We propose to build 49 units there and we expect that those will be sold at less than $2.5 million each. That is going to have a basic house, it will have expandable options; it is going to have a central sewage plant and a little piece of land," he divulged.

bidding process

He said the entity has already begun the bidding process and would be awarding the contract very soon. The units are expected to be completed sometime next year.

The NHDC head noted that these units would be used as a tester for the market.

The NHDC was initially established to manage the Operation Programme for Resettlement and Integrated Development Enterprise (PRIDE) projects islandwide. Operation Pride was set up in 1995 by former Prime Minister P.J. Patterson to provide housing solutions primarily for low-income earners.

However, the agency was rocked by several scandals under the previous People's National Party administration where it was said to have been defrauded of some $451 million, in addition to several millions in cost overruns.

new name

Dr Horace Chang, minister of water and housing, told Sunday Business that the rebranding would include a new name for the entity and more technical staff would be hired to take on the work plan.

"We have inherited a stage where very little was being done for those who needed housing and the agency itself was plagued by debt and a lack of goodwill," said Chang of the change.

"So, we have thought about it and we realise that we have to reposition the agency if we are going to use it, and what we want to do is get focused on how we can deliver more houses to the working class in Jamaica."

Shoucair said the only way for the NHDC to become viable is to pursue projects that are profitable.

"The thinking is for NHDC to move forward. It has to do projects that can make profit, because that profit is the only way it can keep itself in operation and help to complete the other projects that are incomplete," he emphasised.

"So, what we are doing now is planning a number of large open-market projects to be sold, that is, building housing and service lots to be put on the open market."

Other projects to come on-stream are Luana Phase Four which will comprise some 1,000 housing solutions and building lots, also slated for next year.

dionne.rose@gleanerjm.com