Prime Minister Dr. the Most Hon. Andrew Holness, says Government will be examining the New Social Housing Programme (NSHP), to see how best to incorporate the provision of land for building.

Speaking yesterday (July 10, 2025) at the Groundbreaking and Contract Signing for the Hibiscus Housing Development at Tower Hill in Kingston 11, Prime Minister Holness said the NSHP currently does not provide the land, so if beneficiaries meet the need, they would have to find the land.

“We have been examining the programme and at some point in time we are going to have to make a change to the programme to include finding lands for persons who meet the need criteria, but don’t have the lands. Right now we could be building many more houses, but we have actually reached the limit in terms of the number of beneficiaries who have the land on which we can build”, he explained.

The Prime Minister added that one of the challenges the programme faces, is that many properties in these communities are not titled.

“Some of them, the owners have migrated, and different persons have been occupying the lands over time and so they are not regularised, so it takes some time to establish ownership for the lands”, he noted.

The Prime Minister noted that while beneficiary assessment, land acquisition, and project design remain the most time-consuming aspects of the programme, there has been significant improvement in the construction and delivery of houses, some completed within just two to three months.

“The phase we are in now is to scale up the programme. In the next budget we will have more resources, we will expand the programme. We will add new features to the programme so that we can serve more people”, the Prime Minister stated.

The Hibiscus Housing Developed is being constructed under Modality Three of the New Social Housing Programme: the “Upgrade of Tenements” (Big Yards).

The Development which has a timeline of six (6) months, will be completed at a cost of over $45 million and will see the construction of seven (7) units, comprising four (4) studios, one (1) two-bedroom unit and two (2) three-bedroom units. The project will benefit 16 persons, including children, who were living in deplorable conditions.

As of July 10, 2025, a total of 295 housing units or 676 rooms have been completed, with over 1063 persons benefitting.   There are 45 active construction projects or 93 rooms which will be completed in short order.  Sixty-five additional projects will commence during this financial year, adding another 384 rooms to the housing stock.