Peta-Gaye Clachar/Staff Photographer
Young professionals such as these three ladies, working in corporate offices in New Kingston, find it difficult to survive on the income they earn.

Young, middle-income professionals from rural Jamaica who are living and working in the Corporate Area are barely surviving on their monthly income. The high cost of rent in the Kingston Metropolitan Area, among other expenses, is cutting greedily into the income of these persons.

On average, a young professional with tertiary-level training, who is entering the job market, nets $60,000 per month. With a minimal monthly budget of $57,00 per month, many are feeling the pinch.

Germaine, a university graduate, says he takes home just over $48,000 for a supervisory-level job and "has to crunch it" to survive monthly.

Like many young professionals working in the Corporate Area, he is from a rural parish, so he has to pay for accommodation and all other living expenses.

"It is often a challenge for someone from the rural area to live and work in the Corporate Area on such a salary," Germaine tells The Sunday Gleaner. "If you are not careful with your spending you may find that you are broke before you get your next pay cheque," he adds.

Germaine is not alone. Georgia, a 22-year-old, who lives in Barbican but hails from the western parish of Hanover, jokes that she cannot afford to get sick as her take-home pay, $60,000 per month, can barely sustain her.

"Sometimes, I have to call home and ask for money, something I do not think I should be doing at this age," she says.

Exorbitant rental fees

While their salaries could benefit from some propping up, one of their main concerns is the tendency for landlords to 'exploit' them by charging exorbitant rental fees.

Their claim is supported by Earl Samuels, managing director of the National Housing Trust (NHT), who acknowledges that the cost of rent in the Corporate Area is high.

"Rental is high in the Corporate Area because the landlord has to cover the cost of repairs and maintenance for his property, plus sometimes he has borrowed funds, so he needs to meet his mortgage payments," Samuels says.

In 2004, real estate advertise-ments in The Sunday Gleaner priced one-bed room apartments in the preferred Corporate Area communities of Mona, Barbican and Liguanea between $16,000 and $20,000 per month.

Today, these rates, according to one real estate agent, range between $25,000-$40,000 per month in these communities.

"If you are lucky, you may be able to get a one-bedroom for $18,000 but this is very rare," Marcia Reid, a real estate agent says.

She explains that the prices charged for one-bedroom apart-ments or flats are normally "relatively high as they are always in demand."

Middle-income persons earn between $32,000 - $85,999 per month, so rent eats up a significant portion of their income.

Asked whether the NHT would consider building houses in the Corporate Area and rent them below market value to young professionals from rural Jamaica for no longer than a prescribed period of time, say three years, Samuels says yes, but the lands are not available for such developments.

"We would not be averse to building and renting units, but we need to find available lands to do so," Samuels says.

Another option

An option exercised by some young middle-income persons from the Corporate Area is to move back to rural Jamaica and take up, in some cases, lesser-paying jobs.

Latoya, 25, graduated from the University of Technology in 2005, and after two years of what she describes as "struggling to stay alive in the city," moved back to St. Mary.

"I am a teacher now an the salary is less than what I was earning in Kingston, I am able to save more. When I was in Kingston, all my money went into paying bills," she says.

Another option is migration overseas. A 2005 World Bank study estimated that 80 per cent of Jamaica's university graduates, head overseas to do work, contributing to the brain-drain phenomenon.

- D.L.

Young professionals' budget