KINGSTON JAMAICA PROPERTY

Jamaica real estate of a residential type is much more complex that commercial real estate. This for one major reason, the size, type and purpose of residential property. We often lament over the fact that most real estate is actually residential; this is very true as most real estate in the corporate area is actually zoned as residential. This ranges from the following, apartments, town houses, houses, condos, villas and even mansions. The list of types of residential real estate is extremely long and in fact over 47 categories or types of residential real estate exist. However the common factor among all residential real estate is how the Jamaican property value is determined. Residential real estate in Kingston is determined by several factors that we list here:

Environment: This is similar to commercial properties where the environment plays an integral role in property value. If the residential building exists in a volatile and hostile community then the value is likely to be well below its true market value. While this might be good when purchasing property it might not be so good when selling real estate especially if environment conditions have worsened.

Danger to Natural Disasters: This is a major concern in Kingston. Many residential areas are prone to all types of natural disasters, the major being floods. Poor drainage in the capital leads to a back up of water and entire houses and residential real estate is flooded and property is destroyed as a result. This is definitely not a community that anyone should consider buying land until that matter is well resolved.

Access to Schools: The new mandate of the Jamaican Ministry of Labor in the Jamaican Government has chosen to place children in secondary schools, close to their homes. If there are no schools close to that home then the child might be placed in an obscure location. Hence it is very important that your home is close to a school.

Access to Hospitals: Similar to a school, houses should be situated within decent proximity to a hospital. As there are three major hospitals in Kingston this should not actually prove difficult. However places such as Port Royal still part of the capital is still a 45 minute drive to the nearest hospital, still too far to be good real estate

Entrance and Exit from community: There should be more than one way to enter and exit your residential community. Not many properties are one way in and one way out. Harbor View Scheme is a prime example. Normally a 15 minute drive to the heart of Downtown  if the area becomes flooded this  real estate is cut off and it will take now 5 hrs to make it to the Kingston hub real state. Not very promising for the value of the real estate.

Crime factor: Crime is a major problem. Before buying any real estate visit the nearest police station and get data on the level of crime that takes place in that community, then asses how long it would take the police leaving from the station to get to your home. This is an excellent option for many ns.

Appreciation rate: The appreciation rate of the property is also fundamental.  real estate does appreciate well if all above factors are good. You can asses this by factoring the number of years the previous owner held the real estate, the difference in purchase and sale price and come up with a yearly appreciation. As rough as this method of assessing real estate value it is a start.

Forced Sale Value on Valuation: Many Jamaican real estate investors don’t asses this, much to their detriment. The Forced Sale Value on real estate depends on the lowest value a similar type of property was sold for in the same community over a short period of time. This is very important as a major difference in FSV of real estate and Estimated Market Value (EMV) can cause major problems to the purchaser in the long term.