The National Housing Trust (NHT) will place 176 homes, most of them reserved for public-sector workers, on the market by next month in Twickenham Park, St Catherine.

The units, including three- and two-bedroom apartments, and two-bedroom townhouses, represent the first phase of a 767-unit development.

Earl Samuels, managing director of the NHT, told Sunday Business that public-sector workers would have first call on 80 per cent of the units, while the other 20 per cent would be made available to other NHT contributors.

The development is being done in collaboration with two trade-union organisations - the Jamaica Confederation of Trade Unions (JCTU), and the Jamaica Civil Service Association (JCSA), which both contributed the 20 hectares of land on which the houses are being built.

islandwide projects

The Twickenham Park project is the first of a number of islandwide projects to deliver housing to government workers under a wage deal struck 15 years ago.

The NHT had reported sometime last year that the first phase of the 767-unit development would consist of 176 units - 80 two-bedroom townhouses and 96 two- and three-bedroom apartments.

Some 113 of the 176 units under this phase were scheduled for completion by January 2009, while the remaining 63 units were to be delivered by June 2009.

But last week, Samuels said keys would be turned over for the first set of homes between July and September.

four-phase project

Samuels said the two-bedroom apartment units will cost $5.6 million, the three bedrooms, $6.3 million, and the two-bedroom townhouses will go on the market for $7.1 million.

The project is being done in four phases. Samuels told Sunday Business that phase one was now 90 per cent completed, and that phase two was 20 per cent completed and would be delivered by January next year.

The JCSA-JCTU-NHT joint venture is the first of its kind with the unions.

Back in 1993, the Government agreed to provide the unions with land to be used for the development of houses for public-sector workers - 20 hectares in each parish - in a trade-off for wages.

dionne.rose@gleanerjm.com