Citing two recent property listings, Senator Sam Mézec said that Jersey could look very different if the Island could not encourage young people to stay and students to return from university.
He described a studio apartment rental which was listed for £925 per month as ‘outrageous’, while adding that a 303sq-ft one-bedroom home was listed by an agency for £305,000.
The latest House Price Index showed that the average cost of properties in the Island rocketed last year, reaching £629,000 – compared to £574,000 for the previous quarter and £532,000 a year earlier.
A Jersey home now costs, on average, two-and-a-half times more than in the UK and almost £200,000 more than in Guernsey.
Senator Mézec said: ‘No reasonable person thinks those prices are sensible or affordable.
‘It shows how out of touch people who set their prices are and shows how broken our housing market is.
‘Anecdotally, we know that young people don’t return to the Island. Any young person trying to establish a future here would be broken when they see those prices.’
He added: ‘Intelligent and well-educated people will end up serving in other economies because they cannot afford to live here. Opportunities for a future-skilled workforce will decrease and we will have to import labour to replace Islanders who could have stayed in Jersey had they been able to afford reasonably priced accommodation.
‘This will lead to a change in character of our Island and the population will become more transient.
‘We will see a decrease in culture and Jersey could look a lot different if we cannot encourage our young people and students to stay in the Island.
‘There is no point investing in the next generation of Islanders if we get no return. We invest in the future but it is pointless if we cannot retain them and get them to come back to the Island and use those skills.’
Senator Mézec recently criticised the government after learning that only 15% of properties in the planned development on the site of the former Planning Offices at South Hill would be affordable homes.
He said: ‘The government don’t get it. They are constantly on the side of investors rather than people who are trying to get on the housing ladder.’
