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Efforts to protect local market homes, for local residents, have been dismissed by the States on a technicality, meaning it couldn't be debated as part of the 2023 Budget.
Deputy Sasha Kazantseva-Miller, pictured (top), believes the supply and affordability of local market housing could be improved if people without local market residential status were prevented or discouraged from owning such properties.
She submitted an amendment to this week’s Budget debate which asked the States "to direct the Policy & Resources Committee…to lead an examination…of the scope to introduce regulatory and fiscal measures over local market residential property ownership such as, but not limited to, that ownership is restricted to those who have the right to occupy local market dwellings".
Presenting her amendment to the States this morning, seconded by Deputy Gavin St Pier, she was immediately met with a 'rule 24 (6)' motion, laid by Deputy Rob Prow.
That means Deputy Prow believed the amendment went beyond the proposition that Deputy Kazantseva-Miller was seeking to amend, suggesting that Deputy Prow thought this amendment was not relevant to the budget debate.
The majority of the States agreed, with the Bailiff closing the debate and moving the States on to general debate on the Budget.
Pictured: The States didn't debate the amendment as it was deemed against the rules.
Deputy Kazantseva-Miller lodged her amendment to the budget after the States agreed in October that the island should aim for higher levels of inward migration to help prevent a reduction in the size of the island’s workforce.
Deputy Kazantseva-Miller said that decision made it "worth the States exploring the option of introducing some levers over the ownership of local residential housing to ensure that it is prioritised for those who are entitled to live and work here".
"Exploration of measures to examine could include limitations to ownership and fiscal measures such as additional surcharges, levies or taxes for persons and entities without a right to live and work in Guernsey," she said.
Deputy Kazantseva-Miller identified other places in the world which she said impose not dissimilar regulatory restrictions on home ownership – for example, in Australia, through the Foreign Investment Review Board, a non-statutory advisory body to the Treasurer and Government.
The latest available figures, published by the States in August, revealed that the average price of a local market home is now a fraction away from £600,000, up 18.5% on the same period 12 months earlier.
Pictured: Deputy Mark Helyar is the States lead on financial matters. He is presenting the Budget for debate this week.
"The intention of any suitable controls should be designed to ensure accessibility and affordability of property and the accrual of benefits from local property market gains to the workforce and population entitled to live and work here and to increase house ownership over time," said Deputy Kazantseva-Miller.
The Policy and Resources Committee's proposed 2023 Budget already featured several changes which it believed would help the housing market. These include relief from document duty to encourage downsizing, additional document duty on properties purchased as investments and additional charges on unoccupied or derelict properties.
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