In summer 2023 it was announced that the Guernsey Housing Association had agreed to buy the derelict hotel from the Medical Specialist Group for £1.8m.
It had been expected that at least 20 new homes for key healthcare workers would be built by the end of 2026.
But the property was never conveyed and no planning applications were ever submitted for it.
An MSG spokeswoman confirmed that the proposed sale to the Guernsey Housing Association was not be proceeding.
‘The sale, which was expected to be completed by the end of 2024, did not go ahead for a variety of reasons,’ she said.
‘MSG remains open to exploring other opportunities for the future of Braye Lodge.’
Guernsey Housing Association chief executive Vic Slade was equally vague about the reasons for the collapse of the deal.
‘The proposed sale of Braye Lodge did not go ahead for a variety of reasons and we understand the owners are open to exploring other opportunities for the site,’ she said.
The purchase was going to be funded with the help of the States’ capital grant, allocated to the Affordable Housing Development Programme.
The States referred all queries relating to Braye Lodge to the GHA.
At the time of the press launch of the sale, it was said a deposit had been paid on the site. The GHA confirmed the money had since been returned.
A 2017 development framework indicated that between 10 and 20 dwellings could be built on the site, but the most recent planning application – to create 14 homes in 2020 – was refused on the grounds that it contained some four-bed homes. At the time the States guidance was for two and three-bed homes to be built.
There have been no applications made since.
The MSG bought the site for £1.5m. in 2019.
The proposed purchase of the site was announced in summer 2023, with then-Employment & Social Security president Peter Roffey saying the site would be a great step forward in providing key worker accommodation.
This week he said he was sad to hear the sale had fallen through.
‘The MSG was intending to sell the site to the GHA,’ he said.
‘It was a purely bilateral arrangement, but predicated on an understanding that if the deal went through then the States would grant-fund the creation of key worker housing on the site. Sadly, just when we had hoped it was about to proceed, we heard via both parties that it was delayed, and now uncertain.’
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