Construction is set to begin on 700 one- and two-bedroom housing units for National Housing Trust (NHT) contributors at Greater Bernard Lodge in St. Catherine, following a groundbreaking ceremony held yesterday.

Prime Minister Dr. Andrew Holness attended the event, which marks the start of construction on two parcels of land within the wider Bernard Lodge development. The homes will come with paved roads, storm-water drains, perimeter walls and street signage as part of the infrastructure package.

Holness said the units add to the government’s broader target of 70,000 new homes nationwide, a goal split across several agencies. According to Holness, the NHT alone was assigned 42,000 of that total and has now accounted for more than 40,000 through a combination of completed builds, signed contracts, procurement and planning.

“Already since the start of this financial year, we have broken ground for 2,000. I know we have already passed 8,000 under construction or out of construction,” Holness said, adding that the Bernard Lodge groundbreaking brings a further 2,000 units into that pipeline.

The Prime Minister said Bernard Lodge itself is being carved into multiple lots for different developers, who will build out separate housing schemes sharing common infrastructure. He put the site’s total potential yield at 15,000 housing solutions, though the government’s direct stake is limited to the 700 units breaking ground now.

“However, only 700 of it will be directly related to the government. The rest of it will all be private development,” Holness said.

He also pointed to the Greater Innswood development, elsewhere in St. Catherine, as another project expected to add housing stock for Jamaicans in the near term.

Holness pressed the National Housing Trust, the Housing Agency of Jamaica and private developers involved in the Bernard Lodge project to accelerate delivery, warning that supply gaps carry direct social consequences.

“The genuine facts are that if we do not produce enough housing, people are going to squat. That is the reality,” he said, calling on all parties to move faster than current timelines allow.