Political meddling has destroyed the open market
YOUR correspondent, Richard Digard, on 8 September rightly drew attention to the issues raised by the Population Management regime (‘Why the housing licence chaos has to end’).
He also touched, but only briefly, on the huge damage done to the open market by these ill-conceived ideas. The value which has been destroyed by political meddling is truly mind-boggling but, as open market residents well know, they are a constituency which is largely, at best, ignored and, at worst, regarded as a milch cow by the States.
We have a huge volume of new housing being proposed but at the same time a significant proportion of the housing stock is completely unsaleable. And before the usual trite comments are made about adjusting prices it should be noted that open market prices have, mostly, fallen by about two-thirds from the 2007 highs and are now back to 1996 levels. Anecdotal evidence suggests there is perhaps 10 years’ stock of houses for sale at present sales levels.
The recent KPMG review covered only the local market rather than being truly comprehensive. There needs to be a proper review undertaken immediately.
RICHARD BATTERSBY,
St Jacques House,
St Jacques,
St Peter Port,
GY1 1SP.