For most of the last decade, if you asked where Montego Bay’s most sought-after new apartments were being built, the answer was Freeport. Soleil, completed in 2022, helped show what a well-designed, well-run waterfront building could achieve on the peninsula. Now a lot of the conversation has moved a few minutes along the coast, to Reading.
So is Reading becoming Montego Bay’s new Freeport? I think the honest answer is: it is becoming something of its own, and the comparison is useful for understanding why.
What is happening in Reading
Two developments are doing most of the talking.
The Pinnacle, by LCH Developments on the Reading Peninsula, is a US$450 million project of four 28-storey towers. According to the Jamaica Gleaner, Tower One (141 residences) topped out in December 2025 and is expected to be delivered in May 2027, with full completion anticipated by 2028. The Jamaica Observer reported that 65 per cent of Tower One had been sold by September 2025, with a strong mix of Jamaicans living overseas and other international buyers.
One Reading, by ONLE Group, the developer behind Soleil, is a US$55 million boutique community. As reported by the Observer when sales launched, it comprises 84 apartments and 16 three-bedroom townhomes, around 20 minutes from Sangster International Airport, with one-bedroom apartments from US$365,000 and townhomes from US$875,000 at the time.
Around them sit established residential communities that have been part of Reading for years. I currently have listings in the area myself, and the questions buyers ask me about Reading have changed noticeably over the past year.
Why the Freeport comparison makes sense
Freeport earned its reputation for a few simple reasons: water on almost every side, proximity to the airport and the city, and a cluster of amenities such as the Montego Bay Yacht Club. Reading shares the first two. It has the sea, the elevation for views, and land that can still accommodate new, well-planned buildings.
Freeport itself is also about to change. In the 2026/27 Budget Debate, Prime Minister Dr Andrew Holness described the Freeport area as one of the most strategically valuable stretches of real estate in the Caribbean, and outlined a plan to gradually move business process outsourcing and light industrial activity from the Freezone to new facilities along the Montego Bay Perimeter Road. That would free up waterfront land on the peninsula for a mixed-use development of commercial, retail and premium residential space.
In other words, the two areas are not really competitors. Both are part of the same westward and waterfront growth of the city.
The road that changes the map
The biggest practical change for Reading may be access. The Montego Bay Perimeter Road, a US$354 million project, includes the 15-kilometre Montego Bay Bypass and the 11-kilometre Long Hill Bypass. The bypass section was targeted to open at the end of September 2026, although the Observer reported on 9 September that work had been paused for a safety review following the death of an engineer on the project. The Long Hill Bypass is scheduled for May 2027.
When traffic can move around the city rather than through it, the time between Reading, the airport and the rest of Montego Bay becomes easier to plan around. For residents, that matters more than almost any amenity.
Where Reading is different
- It is still forming. Freeport is established. Reading will spend the next few years as a construction zone, with the noise and traffic that come with it.
- Rental rules vary by building. The Gleaner reports that Tower One at The Pinnacle is designated for leases of six months or more, with no short-term rentals, while Towers Two and Three are structured as investment units under a rental programme. Know the rules before you buy.
- Amenities will follow, not lead. Restaurants, retail and services tend to arrive once residents do.
What I would weigh as a buyer
If you are considering Reading, I would look closely at the developer’s delivery record, the deposit schedule and realistic completion dates, projected maintenance fees, and how the building will be managed once the developer hands it over. Compare the price per square foot with relevant properties in Freeport and Ironshore, not just with other new launches.
Reading may not become the next Freeport. It may simply become Reading: a new residential address with its own character. For well-chosen property bought at the right stage, that could be a very good outcome.