Earl Jarrett, general manager of the Jamaica National Building Society (JNBS) in conversation with Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller, during a land title presentation ceremony at Dinthill Technical High School in Linstead, St Catherine last Wednesday.

The Land and Agriculture Ministry has entered into a deal with Jamaica's largest private mortgage institution for a special loan window to cover the cost of generating land titles.

Government figures suggest that just under 300,000 parcels of land islandwide are without titles.

The loan fund amounts to $1 million for the year of the programme, under which borrowings will be capped at $50,000, says Jamaica National Building Society (JNBS) in response to Sunday Business queries.

The interest rate to be charged is still under negotiation, the building society said.

Applicants must be 18 or older and a registered taxpapyer, and the loans are to be collaterised by a bill of sale over household appliances or tools.

The loans are to be disbursed through JN Small Business Loans. The repayment period will be 10-30 weeks.

Land Minister Roger Clarke and JNBS general manager Earl Jarret inked a memorandum of understanding Wednesday, under the government's land titling initiative, the Land Administration and Management Programme (LAMP), for the loan window.

Of the estimated 730,000 parcels of land in Jamaica, only 440,000 or 60 per cent are registered.

Some 120 titles were delivered to property owners in St Catherine Wednesday where the land titling project was initiated.

"People need land and they need the security of tenure that a title guarantees," said Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller.

Simpson Miller, noting concern that thousands of properties - just under 40 per cent of land parcels - have no officially registered titles, said the problem was in the cost of obtaining titles.

The LAMP project, which is co-funded by the Inter-American Development Bank, has already introduced a Geographical Information System that facilitates the preparation of Cadastral Maps from which land titles are easily generated.

The PM said the project was on target to hand over 4000 titles by April next year. So far, it has distributed over 500 titles.

lavern.clarke@gleanerjm.com