By Paul Scally, Partner, Le Gallais & Luce
Jersey’s property market has rarely stood still, and the past few years have brought no shortage of change, from shifting affordability pressures to the debate around government-assisted buying schemes.
Having practised property law on the Island since 2002, I’ve had a front-row seat to many of these changes, both as a lawyer working through transactions and as someone who has campaigned for reform along the way. In this piece, I want to share my thoughts on where the market currently stands, the challenges facing buyers and sellers at every stage and where I believe things are heading next.
A market finding its feet
There are genuine reasons for cautious optimism. Transaction volumes have been gradually increasing over the last couple of years, helped by vendors becoming more realistic on pricing, an easing in the Bank of England base rate giving buyers more confidence to commit and some relief from the cost-of-living pressures that dominated the last few years. Those are real, welcome shifts.
But I wouldn’t describe the market as settled. It remains slightly fractured and there has been a lot of press coverage recently about the influence Andium Homes is having through its Andium Homebuy scheme. This is an assisted purchase scheme for first-time buyers, letting them buy a home while deferring 25% of the sale price, with no deposit required from Andium (though buyers still cover legal fees and other purchase costs). Properties range from one-bedroom flats to four-bedroom houses, marketed directly to applicants on the Assisted Purchase Pathway list.
Some estate agents feel that Andium, having sold close to 100 one and two-bedroom flats this year alone, has effectively removed 100 potential buyers from the private market.
Busting a myth or two
I don’t think that picture is quite right and it’s something I’ve written about before.
When you look at the source of funds for buyers using Andium’s assisted scheme, the reality is that most of these buyers do not have anywhere near the deposit required for a traditional home purchase. Without that support, securing a mortgage would be significantly more challenging, if not impossible. These are not buyers being siphoned from agents’ own pipelines, they’re people who would otherwise not be in the market at all.
That matters, because I think our industry needs to be careful not to import the kind of divisive, finger-pointing rhetoric we’re seeing more broadly at the moment. It’s easy to blame a scheme for market conditions rather than look at the underlying supply and affordability picture.
That’s not to say there is not a group of buyers being left behind. There is absolutely a cohort of first-time buyers who don’t meet Andium’s criteria but are still struggling to get a foot on the ladder. This is where I think government has, in the past, got it right and could get it right again.
What worked: the First Step scheme
Years ago, the Jersey Government ran a scheme called First Step, working closely with the property industry to design something that actually met buyers’ needs. Rather than restricting buyers to new-build flats, it helped them onto the open market and crucially, it could not be used to buy directly from a developer.
Around 95% of the people I helped through that scheme bought a house, not a flat. It was, in my experience, a genuinely excellent piece of policy. Unfortunately, the scheme has been on pause for some time, largely because the funding allocated to it ran out.
I would like to see it revived,and extended. Not just for first-time buyers, but for what I’d call “second steppers”. These are people who bought a one or two-bedroom flat some years ago, have since had children, and now find themselves unable to move up to a house because they can’t bridge the gap between their existing mortgage and what a family home costs.
A second-charge arrangement, similar in principle to First Step, where government helps fund the deposit on the next purchase and recoups a share of the capital appreciation when the property is eventually sold, is a sensible, self-funding way to unlock that “trapped energy” in the one and two-bedroom market. Freeing up flats for the next generation of first-time buyers has a multiplying effect on the whole market.
Policy needs to be joined up
More broadly, my concern is that housing policy in Jersey has, at times, felt like a series of well-intentioned but disconnected interventions rather than a coherent strategy. The 3% tax introduced on buy-to-let purchases in 2022, just as the market was turning, was intended to encourage owner-occupation, and I understand the logic. But as far as I’m aware, its actual effect has never been properly monitored. Government should be measuring the outcomes of these policies, not simply moving on to the next idea.
Similarly, the debate around minimum flat sizes, restricted only a couple of years ago and now apparently being loosened again, deserves more scrutiny of the “why” behind the change. My honest view is that government, across Andium Homes, the Jersey Development Company and the wider machinery, needs to pause, talk properly to the industry and set out a clear, long-term plan for meeting Jersey’s housing need, rather than reacting to headlines.
Part of that stocktake should include a hard look at why Jersey has two States-owned entities both active in residential development. Andium Homes exists to provide social housing and help first-time buyers onto the ladder, while the Jersey Development Company exists to deliver major regeneration and commercial schemes.
In practice, though, both are now building and selling residential units. JDC’s developments carry a first-time-buyer shared-equity element too, and there are examples of a single scheme being associated with both organisations. When two government-owned bodies are effectively competing for the same buyers with similar stock, it’s fair to ask whether that’s the best use of public resource, or whether a clearer division of responsibility, with JDC concentrating on commercial and larger-scale regeneration and Andium retaining the residential and affordable-purchase remit, would serve the Island better.
Fixing the process itself
Away from policy, there’s also real work to do on how property transactions actually happen day to day. Alongside colleagues in the industry, we’ve been running regular training and networking sessions bringing together lawyers, estate agents and financial advisers, and we now have an established working relationship with the Jersey Estate Agents Association to look at how we can improve the conveyancing process.
One of the biggest sources of stress for clients isn’t the process itself, it’s uncertainty: not knowing how many parties are in a chain, or when everyone will actually be ready. We’re pushing for far greater transparency at the start of a transaction, so that everyone involved knows the full picture, agrees a realistic target date together, and only then moves to a binding commitment. That allows people to get on with their lives, like booking removals, taking holidays, etc., with real confidence, rather than living in limbo until completion day.
A workforce under pressure
Finally, I would flag a less visible but serious issue: the number of qualified conveyancers on the Island has fallen by roughly 50% since 2000, down to around 37 full-time practitioners, of whom a significant number are approaching retirement. Without proper investment in training and a clear route into the profession, that shortage will only add further strain to an already pressured system, regardless of what happens with schemes and policy.
Jersey’s housing challenges won’t be solved by any single measure. But a joined-up strategy, properly monitored policy, and closer collaboration across the industry would go a long way to making the market work better for everyone trying to buy, sell or simply move on with their lives.
