Jamaica-based real estate firm FIRST Rock Real Estate Investment Limited has announced a critical breakthrough at its flagship Hambani Estates luxury development, with cumulative sales now covering all outstanding project costs and enabling structured debt repayment – a positive development that comes as the company navigates a $700-million bond maturing this month and ongoing delays to its audited annual financial results.
According to Mayberry Investments Limited, the financial firm that structured the project’s post-receivership refinancing, seven of the development’s 12 planned luxury townhouses in Kingston 6, St Andrew, have achieved practical completion and are already under sales contract. Proceeds from these transactions, alongside pre-completion sales, are sufficient to cover every projected cost associated with delivering the full Hambani Estates project. This update was publicly released on April 30, the exact same day First Rock confirmed a second extension to the publication timeline for its 2025 audited financial statements. After missing an initial March 1 deadline, the company now targets release of the completed reports by May 15.
The Hambani Estates project, a 12-unit luxury townhouse development targeted at high-net-worth buyers and real estate investors in Liguanea, has endured a turbulent recent history. In early 2025, Sagicor Bank Jamaica placed the development into receivership after First Rock defaulted on project repayment obligations, triggered by widespread construction delays and weaker-than-projected initial sales. After the receivership appointment, Mayberry Investments stepped in to arrange a new corporate note refinancing package, a restructuring that has now positioned the project to begin phased early repayments to noteholders thanks to the stronger-than-expected sales performance.
First Rock was able to regain full control of the Hambani Estates development in September 2025, after paying off the outstanding Sagicor Bank facility using a new $15-million US dollar note that carries a 14% annual interest rate and is scheduled to mature in March 2027.
In a statement accompanying the project update, Mayberry Investments Chief Executive Officer Patrick Bataille noted that both the pace of construction progress and the strength of buyer demand at Hambani Estates have outperformed all post-restructuring projections. Mayberry also confirmed that unit values have risen sharply since the project launched: initial asking prices sat around $1.8 million per unit, and current pricing now sits at roughly $2.3 million. Additional price hikes are projected as more units reach completion and hit the market.
Public filings for First Rock covering the nine-month period ending September 2025 lay out the company’s current financial position. Total liabilities increased to $40.5 million US dollars, up from $31.5 million at the close of 2024, a jump that the company attributes to increased borrowing to complete the project debt refinancing. As of the end of September, the firm held $5.36 million in cash and cash equivalents. For the nine-month period, First Rock reported a net profit of $1.04 million, with a $31,000 net profit recorded in the third quarter alone.