Dozens of Properties Head to Auction as Past-Due Loans Surge

A commercial plaza, a medical facility, an 11-bedroom mansion and a string of resort-area apartments are among the properties about to go under the hammer. On 26 August 2026, dozens of mortgaged Jamaican properties are heading to public auction — and it's happening as arrears across the island's financial sector climb sharply.

If you've been watching Jamaica's repossession market, this is one of the biggest single batches to surface in months. Here's what's on the block, why it's happening now, and what it means if you're thinking of buying.

What's going to auction

The sale is being run by D.C. Tavares & Finson Realty Limited, with a catalogue of 46 properties spread across eight parishes. The auctioneers have been clear that the list isn't final — properties can be pulled right up until sale day if the owner settles what's owed — but as it stands, it's a substantial and varied line-up.

The auction is scheduled for 11 a.m. at the Altamont Court Hotel in New Kingston. Successful bidders should come prepared: a 20 per cent deposit is due on the spot, by certified cheque.

Commercial and specialist properties

Among the headline lots is a commercial complex on Cargill Avenue in Kingston 10, sitting on roughly 2,176 square metres of land. Over the years the address has reportedly hosted a mix of legal, travel, immigration, education and tech businesses, with office suites there also marketed for rent — the kind of income-generating asset that tends to draw serious commercial investors.

Resort and tourism-area units

Several lots sit in tourism hotspots, including a unit at Mystic Ridge in Ocho Rios, an apartment at Carib Ocho Rios Apartments, and a lot within the Whitehouse Beach Club development on Westmoreland's south coast. Resort-linked property has long attracted diaspora buyers and short-term-rental investors.

Homes in established developments

Buyers after a family home will find options in well-known residential schemes — Coral Spring Village in Trelawny, Richmond Estate in St Ann, and New Harbour Village in St Catherine. There are also some genuinely large residences on the list, headlined by an 11-bedroom house in Mandeville and several five- and six-bedroom homes across Kingston, St Catherine and St James.

Separately, Scott's Realty is running an online auction for a one-bedroom apartment at the 20 South development in Kingston 11, with bidding opening at $52 million.

Why this is happening now

The timing isn't a coincidence. Loans that had gone unpaid for 30 days or more across the financial sector jumped 79 per cent — reaching $73.6 billion by April, compared with the previous month. That's a striking one-quarter move.

A large chunk of that spike came from a single dramatic source: unserviced construction loans ballooned twenty-five-fold to around $12 billion, the biggest jump in construction arrears in at least nine years, according to Bank of Jamaica data.

Should buyers be worried — or watching closely?

Here's the nuance worth understanding. A rise in past-due loans doesn't automatically mean a crisis. Loans in this bracket are late, but not yet classified as non-performing — and whoever is behind the construction-loan spike still has a couple of months to settle before those loans tip over that line.

In fact, the broader picture stayed steady: overall non-performing loans held at $37.6 billion in April, roughly flat year on year, and non-performing loans remain under 3 per cent of all lending — comfortably below the 10 per cent mark that would start to worry regulators.

But that headline stability hides real pressure on ordinary households. Rising prices and a series of economic shocks since the pandemic have squeezed disposable income, and when money gets tight, mortgage and loan payments are often the hardest to keep up. That pressure is exactly what feeds the repossession pipeline — and for buyers with cash ready, it's what creates opportunity.

This isn't a one-off

This August auction lands just weeks after National Commercial Bank placed roughly three dozen repossessed properties across 10 parishes onto the market through private treaty — a portfolio with a combined assessed value north of $2 billion. Put together, the message is clear: distressed property inventory in Jamaica is building, and it's spread across both the auction route and the quieter private-treaty channel.

For buyers and investors, that's a landscape worth tracking closely — which is exactly what we built JamaicaRepo to help you do.