A section of Retirement, St James, one of the communities under Operation PRIDE, as seen in July 2005. - File

The National Housing Development Corporation Limited (NHDC) has paid down hundreds of millions of debt, using some of the proceeds of the $846 million earned from the sale of two government-owned properties to National Housing Trust.

The Government-run shelter agency now has liabilities of $6.74 billion to March 2006, down from $7.53 billion the year prior, including loans of 3.8 billion, its latest balance sheet shows.

A majority $3.6 billion of those loans are long-term obligations ranging up to year 2018 at rates from four to 16 per cent, while the other $229 million is either past due or payable in the current period.

Pre-tax losses

The agency for its financial year to March 2006 sustained pre-tax losses of $347.4 million, declining further to $861.7 million after tax, despite a doubling of net revenues to $433.6 million.

The losses were pushed by an 80 per cent vault in administrative expenses to $487.4 million.

But, on a positive note, said chairman, Norman McDonald, "The company reduced its liabilities by repaying high cost loans where possible. This was achieved by the disposal of two properties to National Housing Trust, the proceeds of which were used to repay amounts owed to two financial institutions." The two were an 18 per cent loan from Victoria Mutual Building Society and a 17 per cent loan from Capital and Credit Merchant Bank.

NHDC works through a network of community agencies, called provident societies, to legitimise tenure of low-income households on lands they occupy largely as squatters.

The lands sold to NHT for $846.18 million were recorded as receipts to the Operation PRIDE Fund, managed by the NHDC to finance development of properties and schemes to make them habitable. At the end of March 2006, the fund had $336.8 million.

McDonald said the NHDC, though it lacked resources to pursue construction on its 106 projects, did complete three schemes during the financial year - 60 townhouses at Ensom Green in Spanish Town, St Catherine; 24 serviced lots at Diamond Court, St Andrew; and 473 serviced lots for the Bushy Park 1 scheme, including sewage treatment and water storage systems.

Construction work also proceeded on ongoing projects in Westmoreland, at Whitehall, and Whitehouse, and in St Ann at Mammee Bay, Mt Edgecombe, and Belle Air, according to the agency's annual report, which was tabled in Parliament this month.

Said McDonald: "We commit to redoubling our efforts in the coming years in an effort to meet the expectations of the many yet to achieve home ownership.

At balance sheet date, NHDC had assets of $9.3 billion (2005: $9.97b), including $3.88 billion of loans receivable. Its near $7 billion of liabilities included impaired loans, or estimated loan losses of almost $1.66 billion (2005: $1.36b).

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