Janet Silvera, Senior Gleaner Writer
The two-bedroom townhouses at Mango Walk Country Club. -'Unlike other developers who are catering to either lower income or extremely high (earners), our market is young professionals holding senior to middle management positions.'- Photo by Janet Silvera
WESTERN BUREAU:
Developers Robert Cartade and Ralph Smith, partners on the Mango Walk Country Club development in Montego Bay, have secured buyers for 42 townhouses in phase one of the three-phase development, scoring at least $369.6 million from the sales.
"Phase one sold out in days," said Cartade.
The units in the gated complex, which overlooks the Sangster International Airport, sections of the coast, and downtown Montego Bay, were priced at $8.8 million to just under $13 million.
Another 208 units, constructed under phases two and three, are currently on the market, the developers said.
Those townhouses are to cost considerably more, but the prices were not immediately available.
targeting an
underserved market
Cartade, who is from Kingston, and Smith from Montego Bay, partnered on the 250-townhouse development that they have pitched to mid-level income earners, saying they were targeting an underserved market.
"Unlike other developers who are catering to either lower income or extremely high (earners), our market is young professionals holding senior to middle-management positions," Cartade told Sunday Business.
Construction of the complex, whose communal space includes a clubhouse and swimming pool, began in mid-2005.
The complex, which sits on 28 acres, is safeguarded by a manned gate and buyers will get panic alarms installed in all homes, and mobile security patrols.
Similar developments exist in places like Ironshore, but the Mango Walk development is the most recent of its kind.
Cartade, through his company Selective Homes, has done similar developments across Jamaica, including the controversial Long Mountain Country Club adjacent to Beverly Hills in Kingston, the St. Mary Country Club, Sea Palms in St. Mary; and Orange Bay Country Club in Hanover.
Middle-income groups are generally ignored in real estate planning, charged Cartade, saying developers "go in the direction that government gives them."
Government has the biggest chunk of the housing market held largely through the National Housing Trust (NHT) - which last year accounted for 59 per cent of all mortgages, but only 29 per cent when the dollar value of the mortgages are factored.
NHT is a developer of low-income housing units that typically sell in the $3 million range.
The 42 units sold at Mango Walk will be handed over to buyers in the first week of September, and thereafter, Cartade/Smith will deliver 22 units per month.
To maintain the look of the townhouse complex, the developers say there are restrictions attached to titles.
"You can only extend one way as per the approved design," said Cartade.
"There are many restrictive covenants that protect the overall aesthetics of the home."
