It was envisioned as a bold experiment in community-led development — one that would see Jamaicans building homes not alone, but together. Nearly two decades later, the National Housing Trust’s (NHT) Build 9 programme stands as a quiet reminder of how policy vision and on-the-ground reality don’t always meet.
First launched in 2007, the initiative aimed to give small groups of contributors — often family or close friends — the tools to collectively acquire land, install infrastructure, and eventually construct homes on subdivided lots. But despite its longevity, the programme has remained mostly dormant, with just four of fifteen approved clusters ever reaching completion.
Now, with a national housing deficit topping 100,000 units and construction costs soaring, the Trust is quietly returning to the drawing board.
A team within the agency is now tasked with re-evaluating the programme’s framework, following years of sluggish uptake and logistical snags. Core among the challenges is the infrastructure burden — a costly, highly technical requirement that most beneficiaries simply aren’t equipped to manage.
“Paving roads, laying drainage, ensuring sewage and water lines meet municipal standards — it’s a full-scale development project,” one urban planner familiar with the programme said. “You’re asking regular people to become real estate developers overnight.”
Even with recent adjustments — including increased loan limits and zero-interest options for lower-income earners — Build 9 hasn’t seen the revitalization many hoped for. Industry insiders point to a lack of accessible guidance and technical support as key reasons the concept has failed to resonate.
Real estate professionals also argue that without adequate funding for professional fees and construction overheads, the programme is structurally misaligned with the economic realities of the very people it targets.
“There’s a romance to the idea of building your community with people you trust,” said a Kingston-based realtor, “but it requires far more than ambition. It needs real funding, real guidance, and real simplification.”
In its current form, much of the risk and responsibility still rests on the shoulders of contributors — individuals with no development experience, navigating municipal approvals, engineering contracts, and legal processes with little support.
As NHT undertakes its internal review, there is cautious optimism. A better-structured model, stakeholders say, could make Build 9 viable — perhaps even vital — in an era of skyrocketing real estate prices and limited affordable options.
But until then, the programme remains a well-intentioned blueprint, waiting for the machinery to make it real.
