Only 142 new homes were built last year

The details were revealed in the Guernsey Annual Residential Property Stock Bulletin, published this week.

There are currently nearly 27,700 homes in the island.

Of those, 26,089 are on the local market – an increase of just over 1,000 in the last nine year.

However, the number of open market properties has stayed largely static, with 1,606 – an increase of six since 2015.

Apart from two quarters in 2020, Guernsey’s population has been rising since 2017.

While the population numbers for 2024 have not been published yet, in 2023 the population rose by 900 people, by 350 in 2022 and 380 in 2021.

Three-bedroom homes remain the most prevalent, making up nearly a third of homes, while a quarter of homes have two beds.

The number of local market three-beds increased by just under 30 last year – to 8,235.

But the biggest increase came in four-bed homes – with the numbers going up by 122 to 1,373.

The number of two beds dropped by nearly 70 homes to just under 7,000. The number of one bed homes also dropped.

The planners is currently making new home decisions based on the current evidence being that there was a need for homes of between one and three bedrooms, with a particular need for one and two beds.

While the number of homes went up by 72, there were also 26 administrative amendments last year.

An example of this is a small domestic property above a commercial unit, which had not been known about before.

Looking at the parishes, the number of homes in St Andrew’s rose by two and St Peter’s by one.

The number of homes in St Saviour’s, Torteval and Forest stayed the same.

Most the new homes were in the east and north of the island, with 13 in the Vale, 24 in St Sampson’s and 48 in St Peter Port.