Chang

Thousands of property holders in government schemes with small balances outstanding will have their loans forgiven and certificates of titles handed over this year, says Minister of Water and Housing, Dr Horace Chang.

"The goal is to provide security of tenure to more householders in inner-city areas," the minister said. He was speaking at the Realtors Association of Jamaica's inaugural Quarterly Real Estate Investment Forum in Kingston this week.

"The balance owed by some people is less than $5,000 and, in most cases, it is a couple hundred dollars," Chang told the forum. "To collect what is maybe $80 million is going to cost me about $300 million."

Community outreach

The legal department of the ministry has developed a community outreach programme to address the problem of those who have small outstanding government mortgages. Residents complete the necessary documents, allowing them to receive their property titles once the accounts are settled.

"We have about 8,000 titles in the ministry," he said. "By the end of the year, most of them will be out of the ministry.

Chang spoke to the acquisition of land titles as a means of encouraging responsible social practices by residents in these inner-city communities.

"People who live in inner-city areas and who don't own their own homes have no major stake to protect in their community," Chang said. "If there is a gang war, they don't seek to restore peace, but move from the area."

"The lack of a stake in the community is shown by the situation in most of the high-rise buildings, which are the heart of many garrison communities," Chang pointed out.

"Strata management plans cannot be provided for them, because we have no title for them,"he added.

Improve registration

The ministry is attempting to improve the rate of title registration as well as the speed of real estate development, Chang said.

The move is eagerly anticipated by real estate professionals and is one which has implications for both the public and private sectors.

Speaking about the current delays in registering land and acquiring titles, Garfield Knight, chief executive officer of Caribbean Title Limited, said Jamaica has a woefully inefficient real estate administrative system. The World Bank Doing Business report for 2008 ranked Jamaica at 108 of 178 countries in terms of registering properties.