Low-Income Earners to Benefit More from Interest Rate Subsidy

• The National Housing Trust (NHT) has decided to provide interest rate subsidies to middle- and low-income earners as well as persons with disabilities in keeping with the Government’s mandate to make homeownership possible for every Jamaican.
• Mr Holness said the change in its application of additional interest rate subsidies is a fairer and more effective approach, even as the Trust continues to provide greater assistance to those contributors who need it the most.
• “The subsidy is such that if you fall within a certain category, your interest rates are reduced. If you are disabled, and you are in the category of $30,000 to $40,000, you get a 1% reduction in your interest rate, but that category only pays 2%. If you are in the $42,000 and over, you get a 1% reduction, so you pay 3%,” the Prime Minister indicated.
• The NHT has been evaluating how it allocates subsidies. Under the previous approach, additional interest rate subsidies were applied to special groups. This resulted in persons who fell within those groups automatically attaining subsidies – whether or not they were needed to access or afford a loan.
• This change in interest rate subsidies is expected to make homeownership more affordable for low-income earners, especially in light of rising interest rates that have increased the cost of borrowing. This should help to sustain demand in the affordable housing segment of the real estate market.

(Source: JIS News)