Member of Parliament for South Central St Catherine Sharon Hay-Webster (right) and Genefa Hibbert, permanent secretary in the Ministry of Water and Housing, look on as Housing Minister Dr Horace Chang (second right) and Keith Hinds, mayor of Portmore, break ground for Portmore Villas Phase 2B in St Catherine yesterday. - Ian allen/Photographer

The Ministry of Water and Housing has officially broken ground for the development of 100 housing solutions in Portmore Villas, St Catherine, at a projected cost of $300 million.

The units will form Phase 2B of the Portmore Villas development.

Housing Minister Dr Horace Chang said yesterday that the development was the way forward in making houses available to all working-class Jamaicans who contribute to the National Housing Trust (NHT).

The development, under the mandate of the one-year-old Housing Agency of Jamaica Limited (HAJ), will include 130 lots for sale as well as the 100 solutions designated to NHT contributors.

Full-service lots

Chang told residents that each unit will cost about $3 million and each lot, about 3,000 square feet, will be sold for $700,000. The lots will be full service with provisions for water, light and road.

"We know in Jamaica that when persons are given security of tenure, they in a short while turn these houses into palaces. We are giving persons that chance to develop themselves. For the longest while, the working class have never been able to own the land. That is about to change," Chang said.

He said St Catherine would benefit from 815 houses from a total of 10,000 to be built at 40 sites throughout the island at an estimated cost of $20 billion.

Chang said the Jamaica Mortgage Bank was making loans available to give the private sector financial help in building houses.

Joseph Shoucair, of the HAJ, said the houses will be completed in a timely manner and that the underdeveloped areas around the project would get incremental assistance in the development of their communities.

"To make those who will be living in the solutions happy, you have to help the other areas as we are aware of the security implications," Shoucair said.

Portmore Mayor Keith Hinds and Member of Parliament for South Central St Catherine Sharon Hay-Webster welcomed the new development in the municipality.

rasbert.turner@gleanerjm.com