GHA hits 1,000 property milestone

The milestone property at Clos Carre, Route des Clos Landais in St Saviour’s was celebrated with a ribbon-cutting ceremony.

There are 17 GHA properties on the clos, 10 for rent and seven for partial ownership to first-time buyers.

There are also seven two-bed bungalows and three two bed houses available for rent, with four two-bed and three three-bed houses available for partial ownership.

Chloe Wilson and her two-year-old daughter Sienna Shaw are the lucky tenants of the 1,000th property.

‘It’s very exciting as we’ve been in a box room in a single bed for so long and now we’ll have a lot more space,’ said Ms Wilson.

‘Initially we weren’t entirely sure about the area with it being further away than most GHA housing, but we’ve had a drive around and it’s a beautiful area with lots of walking opportunities, it’s really nice.’

‘We’ll get the keys this week but Sienna’s already picked out her bedroom.’

GHA chairman Chris Hill, chief executive Steve Williams, alongside Employment & Social Security president Deputy Peter Roffey, were on hand to do the honours with the ribbon and scissors.

Mr Williams said it had been a ‘window of opportunity’ to purchase the land in St Saviour’s.

‘Before this build, and the build around the corner, there had not been anything built in this area for around 50-60 years,’ he said.

‘We managed to purchase this before the Island Development Plan, so unless it changes again in the future, this will probably be it, but it’s great to have and makes a huge difference to so many people.’

Clos Carre’s land and construction costs were £4.49m., 11% of which were granted by the States.

The remainder will be funded by a loan paid off by GHA rental income and partial ownership sales receipts for the next three decades.

However, when it was created in 2002, the GHA was a States Housing Department initiative started with no housing stock.

Mr Williams added that they would always now be on the lookout for more land opportunities to build more communities and change the image of social housing.

‘Since 2002 we have really tried to make homes that could shape a community,’ he said.

‘It’s very heartening to hear people say that they like the look of what we build as that is what we want to hear.

‘When we started we were given 85 States houses to develop and improve and we now have 1,000, 1,650 social housing units altogether with the States.

‘We work very closely with them. Any more properties we want to develop would have to be at the right price with good planning opportunities.’