Deputies seek to fill gap in 'hot housing market'

At the end of this month States members will be asked to back an Employment & Social Security Committee proposal to allow eligible islanders to buy some newly-built affordable homes at 75% of their market value.

The properties would be wholly owned by the purchaser, but, if selling, they would only ever be allowed to get back 75% of the valuation at the time of sale.

The plan has the unanimous backing of ESS members and has been developed with the Guernsey Housing Association.

ESS president Peter Roffey said it would fill a hole in the support provided by the States, in what is a ‘hot housing market’.

‘The affordable housing programme has a gap in it,’ Deputy Roffey said.

‘It caters for people who want to rent, it caters for key workers and it caters for people who want to be part-owners, but it doesn’t cater for those who really aspire to becoming homeowners and find it impossible in the current market.’

The move comes in the form of an amendment to the Government Work Plan, which identifies the projects which all committees need to prioritise during the remainder of this States term.

It will be seconded by ESS vice-president Deputy Lindsay de Sausmarez, who is also president of Environment & Infrastructure, which has responsibility for some policies pertaining to the private housing market.

She said the proposal was especially timely, as the route to home ownership had narrowed.

She recalled an Institute of Directors conference earlier this year at which young people had said housing was their biggest barrier to living in Guernsey.

‘I think it’s something that, as a government, we need to tackle urgently,’ she said.

‘It’s important to provide viable routes for young people to stay on-island, so that we’re not losing them to areas where housing is more affordable.’

Deputy Roffey said that the proposed new plan would address a particular sector of the population which the island needed to look after.

‘I think there are certain income levels and job types where people almost understand that they’re probably going to require social or other rental accommodation,’ he said, ‘but we have reached the point with Guernsey’s housing market that people in really quite well-paid, professional jobs, who naturally as a couple or as a family would expect to be able to buy their own home, just can’t.

'So we will lose teachers and professionals and health workers and whatever else, and I don’t want to see that happening.’

If the amendment is backed by the States at the end of June, ESS and E&I will report back ‘as soon as practical’ with proposals for how the scheme should work.

If it is not supported, Policy & Resources’ proposals on the GWP already call for housing to be treated as a top priority and for a market intervention project to be developed. If those proposals are approved, E&I will begin the process of identifying suitable ways to intervene.

However, Deputies Roffey and de Sausmarez said they wanted to ensure, via their amendment, that this particular scheme was developed as an extension to the island’s affordable housing solutions.