Chief Minister John Le Fondré is also planning to set up a policy development board to examine housing affordability, whose work will include reviewing the rates at which social housing rents are set, the current rate being 90 per cent of market value.
The response to the petition says that passing laws to cap rents has had limited success when tried previously in Jersey and elsewhere but ‘many other options’ are available to tackle housing affordability and quality.
It says that work being carried out to address these issues includes introducing new minimum standards for rental properties, improving transparency on letting fees paid by tenants and expanding the discrimination laws to protect tenants with children.
The response also says that ‘rent stabilisation’, which would require landlords to provide longer leases with no ‘above-inflation’ rent increases permitted, is being considered, as well as a ‘moratorium [temporary ban] on buy-to-let properties in new developments being purchased by investors without housing qualifications’.
Other measures being worked on include the provision of more than 1,000 affordable homes by 2020, looking at bringing vacant/under-occupied properties back onto the market and introducing more assisted-home-ownership schemes.
The response to the petition, which has received more than 3,000 signatures, says that Senator Mézec ‘recognises that the cost of housing is a challenge for many households in Jersey’.
‘73 per cent of lower-income households living in qualified private rented accommodation could be considered in “rental stress” [spending more than 30 per cent of their income on housing], with some families paying over half of their income in housing costs,’ it says.
‘The Income Distribution Survey 2014/15 showed that the cost of housing was the single biggest contributory factor for relative low income.
‘The minister is determined that this government must pursue policies that will improve the standard of living for Islanders, including making housing more affordable across all sectors.’
Nick Dodsley of ND Estates, who is the vice-president of the Jersey Estate Agents’ Association, said that the proposed moratorium would be unfair on investors and called for industry to be consulted on the matter.
‘We do not think a moratorium on ownership by unqualified persons in new developments would be fair on investors or existing owners and indeed existing local owners,’ he said.
‘It may have unintended consequences and the government should not seek to intervene in the market without a full consultation and discussion with the industry as whole. The effect may also damage re-sales of existing units by owner-occupiers.
‘Landlords are under pressure already from legislation which is designed to bring in better quality rentals for tenants.’
Gill Hunt, the Channel Islands representative of the National Association of Estate Agents, said a lot of investors in buy-to-let properties were institutional investors like pension funds, which helped the elderly.
She added that she believed that other means were available to help less-well-off tenants, such as introducing innovations to building projects.
‘In Singapore they have blocks where there are three-bedroom apartments. I know everyone wants a three-bedroom house but and families can live in those,’ she said.
‘Also if an elderly person moves into a block with relatives they can receive a discount because they know they will look after them.’
In relation to commercial rents, the petition response says that while Economic Development Minister Lyndon Farnham recognises ‘the challenges faced by many businesses in Jersey’ but he believes that rents are a ‘function of the market’.
It adds that he would not advocate rent controls because they might restrict the ‘supply and quality’ of commercial premises.
