Housing will be for sale with prices benchmarked against GHA’s partial ownership ones

As many as 320 homes – equating to 1% of the island’s current housing stock – could be built on the site.

Co-op CEO Mark Cox said it intended to benchmark prices against the Guernsey Housing Association’s partial ownership properties.

‘We’re in times of high inflation at the moment, so we’ve got to work on that. Setting a price for those houses currently is going to be tricky, but we are determined alongside the development partner that these are affordable for local Guernsey residents.’

Mr Cox said the intention was to develop one-, two- and three-bedroom units, as a mixture of flats, apartments and town houses, with some key worker accommodation above the Co-op main store on the site.

‘The site is huge and it’s a large number of units. It’s twice the size of Admiral Park so it lends itself to a significant amount of housing,’ he said.

‘We’re aiming at affordable housing, in terms of ensuring that we can meet some of that demand, particularly for local people who haven’t got any hope at the moment looking for housing on the island.

‘Affordable housing’ will, in this case, be privately built and should be predominantly privately owned, though, assuming the project is developed with the planning policy GP11 still in effect, some of the development would pass to the Guernsey Housing Association for social housing and partial ownership.

Mr Cox said the plans included community space and a significant amount of green space as shared amenities for the people living on site. Town houses would have their own front and back gardens.

‘We’re looking to generate a new community on the Bridge and the north of the island, so whether you’re living on site, working on site, or you’re playing on site,it’s going to be a great place.

‘It really will have a nice feel to it. A great place to live, a great place to socialise.’