NHT rebuts suggestion mostly high income earners receive its mortgages

 

The National Housing Trust (NHT) is disputing suggestions that most persons who benefit from its mortgages are in the higher income bands.

 

The argument has been made by various commentators since the uproar regarding the prices of units at NHT's Ruthven Towers development in New Kingston, St. Andrew, which many contend can only be afforded by those who earn a high income.

 

Since the controversy, the NHT has said the 86-unit development in this price-point represents less than one per cent of the approximately 10,000 housing solutions it is constructing across the country. 

 

On Friday, the entity continued to dismiss the backlash, with Dwayne Berbick, Manager of Corporate and Public Affairs at the NHT, telling Radio Jamaica's Hotline that 73 per cent of the Trust's mortgages have been given to persons in its two lowest income bands. 

 

"The NHT's lowest income band - minimum wage to $15,000 weekly - they account for 42 per cent of our mortgagers. They get a loan at zero per cent.  [Those who earn] 15,001 to 30,000 weekly, they account for 31 per cent of our mortgagers. They get a loan at zero per cent as well. And I make that point because there are numbers circulating to the contrary and I would like to correct that," Mr. Berbick declared.   

 

He added that mortgages for the next income band consisting of people who earn up to $42,000, account for another 14 per cent of NHT loans.

 

That information contradicts a 2016 report by the Caribbean Policy Research Institute (CAPRI), which stated that various studies revealed that, from 1976 to 1993, the richest one per cent of contributors received 35 per cent of mortgages disbursed, while the poorest 60 per cent of contributors received only 33 per cent of mortgages.

 

It also said middle and upper-income contributors received more mortgages than the lowest paid contributors in the period from 2009 to 2014.

 

Former NHT Chairman Easton Douglas previously conceded that of the 530,000 NHT contributors, almost 60 per cent were low-income earners but, the NHT is only able to satisfy 20 to 25 per cent of this category.

 

 

As it relates to the Ruthven Towers development, Donald Moore, Senior General Manager Construction and Development at the NHT, said a mark-up has been applied to the apartments so that the Trust can make a profit. 

 

The one and two bedroom units are on sale for $27.7 million up to $37.7 million. 

 

While he did not have details of the expected return on investment on hand, Mr. Moore insisted the mark-up was "not excessive". 

 

Still, with questions about the property's affordability, the entity said other NHT-specific benefits would make them more accessible to contributors.

 

Vencot Wright, Assistant General Manager of Corporate Business Strategy at the NHT, noted that a mortgager would receive up to $15 million from the NHT to purchase one of the apartments at an interest rate of four per cent.  

The NHT spent about $2 billion on the Ruthven Towers development.