As part of plans for a major overhaul of the Waterfront, the Jersey Development Company is seeking to build 1,000 new homes, as well a providing other amenities which could include an outdoor swimming pool, a national art gallery and a landscaped bridge over Route de la Libération.
Senator Sam Mézec, a former Housing Minister, lodged a proposition calling for foreign buy-to-let investors to be blocked from owning properties in the development. His proposals also call for at least 50% of the homes built within the development to be allocated through the Affordable Housing Gateway exclusively for either first-time buyers or for social rental.
The Council of Ministers have now lodged an amendment which would maintain Senator Mézec’s clause regarding foreign investment. However, the ministerial amendment requests that the 50/50 split with the Affordable Housing Gateway be reviewed to maintain the ‘overall viability of the scheme’.
If approved, the amendment would require the government to produce a report by 30 April which ‘provides guidance to be used by the JDC with the aim of maximising the proportion of affordable units allocated through the Housing Gateway’ alongside a ‘range of other residential accommodation’ while delivering on public realm improvements and community facilities.
Senator Mézec said he was pleased that ministers appeared to have accepted his point on buy-to-let properties but that there was ‘much more which needs to be done to improve access to affordable housing’.
‘Today the government have lodged an amendment to my proposition which, following discussions with myself, accepts that no homes built as a part of the proposed Waterfront development should be sold to foreign investors, and that we should maximise the proportion of affordable homes on the site,’ said the Senator.
‘The question now becomes, what’s the proportion? If it is five for first-time buyers and 995 for investors then we have not got the right balance. But they are saying that they will publish their intentions in the next few months so then we will be able to hold them to account on that.’
He added that ‘the principle that there will be affordable housing as part of this development is crucial’.
A 2019 report into housing provision in the Island found that 7,000 new homes would be needed by 2030 to meet demand. The Objective Assessment of Housing Need Report based that number on the assumption that recent trends in net migration would continue.
Currently, the JDC is carrying out an extensive consultation process for the project, with a series of public engagements set to run until the end of March – prior to an outline planning application being submitted in May.
