Prime Minister Dr. The Most Honourable Andrew Holness has reaffirmed the Government’s commitment to expanding access to affordable housing with the groundbreaking of a major residential development in Rozelle Estate, St. Thomas.
Speaking today (May 8, 2026) at the National Housing Trust Groundbreaking Ceremony for the Rozelle Estate Development in St. Thomas, Prime Minister Holness said the Government remains focused on increasing the pace of housing delivery while ensuring that housing solutions are affordable, accessible, and resilient for Jamaican families.
Prime Minister Holness said the administration’s housing policy is designed to ensure that hardworking Jamaicans who obey the law, work consistently, and save responsibly can access suitable homes within a reasonable timeframe.
“We’re going to bring more housing solutions to the market at a faster pace, more affordable and more accessible, so that the person who is leaving school, who has done all that society has said that they should do, and who comes on the housing market, ready to purchase, finds a housing solution. We want anyone who enters the housing market for a home to be able to find an affordable solution in a decent period of time. That is the objective of the housing policy,” said Prime Minister Holness.
The Prime Minister noted that St. Thomas is now positioned for significant expansion due to ongoing infrastructure improvements, improved road connectivity, and increased investor confidence in the parish’s development potential.
“We are changing St. Thomas, and we have changed St. Thomas in tangible ways. You see it when you come here, the change is happening in front of you, and we want to continue to do that. I will tell you that within the next three years, St. Thomas could have 10,000 houses, and the NHT will tell you that several landowners along this stretch have already approached the NHT to purchase lands and to partner for housing development,” Prime Minister Holness stated.
Prime Minister Holness also encouraged developers and investors to take advantage of the National Reconstruction and Resilience Authority FAST Programme, which was established to facilitate quicker approvals for projects aligned with national development and resilience priorities.
“The National Reconstruction and Resilience Authority has a particular pathway built in which we call the FAST Programme and this is to encourage projects that help to form resilience, and that are in synergy with infrastructure, especially in areas where the government is doing reconstruction activity, to apply to NaRRA to have these projects considered for quick approval so that they don’t have to spend three and five years in gestation before these projects can come to fruition,” Prime Minister Holness said.
The Prime Minister further stressed that resilience must remain a central feature of Jamaica’s future housing developments, particularly as climate-related threats continue to intensify across the region. Prime Minister Holness said the Government is also exploring innovative modular and semi-permanent housing technologies to accelerate housing delivery and improve cost efficiency across the sector.
Prime Minister Holness additionally underscored the need to eliminate inefficiency within government systems, noting that lengthy approval timelines continue to slow development and delay access to housing for thousands of Jamaicans.
The Rozelle Estate housing development is being undertaken through a partnership between the National Housing Trust and New Rozelle Properties Development at an estimated cost of J$9.6 billion. The project will deliver 895 housing solutions on 187 acres of land located approximately three kilometres west of the Morant Bay Urban Centre. Of the total units, 660 housing solutions will be made available through the National Housing Trust, while the remaining 235 units will be delivered by the developers under the Guaranteed Purchase Programme.
