Prime Minister Holness Announces Revised First Step Housing Programme and Contribution Amnesty for MSMEs and Charities
“Effective July 1, 2024, the NHT will revise its Home Improvement Loan policy to allow all contributors to access home improvement loans of up to $3.5 million after 10 years.”
-Prime Minister Holness
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Prime Minister Andrew Holness has announced policy improvement measures for the National Housing Trust (NHT) contributors to access home loans and improve household energy efficiency.
The move is part of the Holness administration’s comprehensive approach to satisfy demand for home improvement financing from the NHT by revising the Home Improvement Loan Policy and introducing additional funding with the Smart Energy Home Improvement Loan and the Solar Panel Home Improvement Grant.
The NHT will now be lending more money for home improvement.
“As more Jamaicans become homeowners, there has been an increased demand for home-improvement financing. As a result, effective July 1, 2024, the NHT will revise its Home Improvement Loan policy to allow all contributors to access home improvement loans of up to $3.5 million after 10 years.” Prime Minister Holness was speaking last Thursday, March 21, 2024, during his 2024/205 budget presentation.
Currently, public sector workers can access home improvement loans from the NHT 10 years after the initial mortgage loan, while non-public sector workers who are contributors must wait 15 years.
The Prime Minister announced the introduction of the Smart Energy Home Improvement Loan, a new loan product designed to promote green energy solutions.
“As of July 1, 2024, NHT contributors will now be able to access a new loan product, the Smart Energy Home Improvement Loan, to outfit their dwellings with any combination of; solar panels and batteries, solar water heaters, solar insulation, other renewable energy technology, windmills, hydropower, and biomass, rainwater harvesting and storage to include water tanks and pumps,” said Prime Minister Holness.
With the Smart Energy Home Improvement Loan, contributors may access up to $1.5 million with two contributors being able to join and access $1.5 million each for green energy home improvement at a rate of 5% with a payback period of up to ten years.
Prime Minister Holness also announced the expansion of Home Grants to include the installation of solar panel systems on the houses of Public Sector pensioners at a maximum of $1.5 million each.
“The programme will target 30 pensioners per parish each year, for the next three years. Beneficiaries will be selected at random after being stratified by parish and after satisfaction of the following criteria; at the point of retirement, the pensioner was earning less than $30,000 per week at that time. Must be a homeowner and this includes owners of non-NHT constructed houses and must be 60 years or older and must not have already installed these items.”
Preference will be given to pensioners who live in areas with unreliable or irregular electricity supply.