States wants half of increased value of new homes on open market

Published in the Guernsey Press on Wednesday 14 February 2024

Under the proposals, the States would receive £1m. if a newly-built property was inscribed on the open market and valued at £2m. more than it would have been on the local market.

Inscribing an existing local market home to the open market, or transferring an open market registration, would incur a 50% levy on increased value but the £250,000 minimum would not apply.

But the new scheme would expand part A of the open market slowly, with the total number of inscriptions increasing by not more than 15 in any five-year period, whereas at one time politicians were discussing adding more than 200 homes to the open market register to take its total size back up to about 1,700 properties.

The proposals, seen by the Guernsey Press, were agreed in draft form by the Environment & Infrastructure Committee on 22 January. They were sent to interested parties on Monday. They have until the end of this month to make comments.

‘The draft policy has been shaped by extensive input from interested parties and we are now quite advanced,’ said E&I president Lindsay de Sausmarez.

We are not at the first stage – this is more like the penultimate stage,’ said E&I president Lindsay de Sausmarez.

‘It is this document that we are now sharing with stakeholders so that their feedback can help to inform the final policy, which we hope to bring forward in the next month or so.’

The final phase of consultation was described as ‘targeted’ and involves owners of open market properties, developers, some estate agents and other relevant States committees.

A letter sent by Deputy de Sausmarez asks consultees whether they agree with E&I’s proposed cap of 15 new part A inscriptions every five years or think it should be set higher or lower. And it invites comments on the proposed flat fee of £250,000 and 50% levy on uplift in value.

It also seeks feedback on limiting any property developer to one new inscription per year, and encouraging developments to proceed in a timely manner by requiring them to be completed within three years once the owner has obtained permission to register on the open market.

‘The feedback will be used to finalise the [new] inscriptions policy so that it can be published,’ said Deputy de Sausmarez.

‘However, it will take some time before it can be operational as the open market law will require amending to enable the various charging mechanisms to be implemented.’

Politicians in support of a new inscriptions policy have previously estimated that it could raise additional income for the States of about £5m. a year.