ROOMS FOR RENT, properties for sale - people are leaving Jamaica's old capital of Spanish Town, St. Catherine silently and very few people are eager to go there.
The exodus of residents is the experience in what is fast becoming Jamaica's capital for violence, death and mayhem. In the last month eight people have been shot and killed and extra police have been sent to the town.
Checks by THE STAR show many persons are shunning the town centre and residential and commercial properties are hard to sell.
"There's no demand for property within the town centre because no one wants to come there because of the violence. It's mainly commercial properties that are sold in the town centre but there are a lot of abandoned buildings and empty lots because no one wants to live there or buy them," said Marcia Lain, real estate agent with Venecia Reality Company in Spanish Town.
Among the areas that investors reject are Corletts Road, Cumberland Road, March Pen Road, King Street and other parts of the town centre. The reason potential buyers and tenants are rejecting the town centre and its environs is because of the violence and gang warfare between perennial rivals 'One Order' and 'Clansman' gangs.
The violent flare-ups have taken place mainly in areas such as March Pen, the bus park, and Ellerslie Pen in the town centre. Usually when violence erupts at the bus park most persons taking public transport are left stranded. Violent acts in March Pen, Ellerslie Pen and Tawes Pen will affect persons going to Innswood, Angels, Magil Palm, Sydenham Villas and White Water. War in the town centre may affect persons going to the Eltham and Ensom areas.
The situation is so bad that one homeowner who put up her mother's two-bedroom, one-bathroom home with land space on Corletts Road for sale said since she placed the advertisement in the paper on Sunday April 2, not one person has called. The price has been set at $1.8 million but it is cheap in comparison to a house of that size in Innswood, Spanish Town, which is being sold for $4.3 million or in Greater Portmore for $3.2 million.
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Judy Benjamin, a sales person at the JN Real Estate Company adds that lots in the town centre don't readily attract buyers.
"In the town centre things are hard to sell but it's mainly commercial properties. People are afraid to buy because of the violence," she said.
And, the difficulty in selling seems to be slowly heading towards the residential communities. Another homeowner explained she has experienced difficulty selling a house in Sydenham Villas although that community is on the outskirts of the town centre.
"A lady called me and asked where it was and when I said Spanish Town she said she was not buying although I tried to tell her it was on the outskirts of the town," she said.
Donald Harper, who said he was seeking a home in Spanish Town said he took back his deposit from the developers of the scheme after the last set of violent flare-ups.
"I realised that the scheme was near to an area where violence has happened in the past and it might happen again and I can't go home so I took back my money," he said.
Still not everyone is worried about violence affecting their properties.
"A lot of police live in this scheme and you don't go through the town centre to come here. It's not a violent area either," said a resident of Eltham Acres who put up his two-bedroom house for rent.
Real estate agents add people still want houses in the housing schemes and residential communities. But, they said the demand comes mostly from investors with between $1-$4 million to spend.
"People with more money tend to stay in Kingston. The main reason is that the violence is a factor and people complain about the traffic as well going into Kingston," Lain added.
Lain adds though there is a "special demand" for housing in Portmore in comparison to Spanish Town.
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