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Unrestricted growth however, would mean building on precious countryside and therefore The States of Jersey have rightly decided that there should be a ceiling on the population in order to contain the demand for both residential and commercial property. In order to do this the States of Jersey 1949 Housing Law, as amended, was created to put controls into place which restrict ownership and occupation of residential property, subsequently protecting the resident population.
Around 85% of the
The1(1)(K ) or “wealthy immigrants” category provides for people who “can be justified on social or economic grounds”. The general criteria, against which individual applications on economic grounds are considered, include likely contribution to tax revenues. But other criteria which can allow applications to be approved include the applicants business or social background, or other non-economic benefits which the island may receive if consent is granted.
The second category takes into consideration the employment of people who qualify as ‘essential’ to the continued well being of the island. An employer must prove that there is no opportunity to fulfil the vacancy from within the island. These people are frequently employed within finance, education or medicine. Generally speaking the present limits are that people gaining housing qualifications under this clause known as 1(1)J, can buy or rent a property, once the employer has applied for and received a “J” category licence from The Housing Committee for that employee, the employee is then in a position to form a property holding company as a vehicle through which he is able to purchase a home. Certain apartments are available to purchase by ‘share transfer’. In this case the property is held by a Company and each flat is conveyed in perpetuity by the purchase of a block of shares in the Company. Housing exercises no control over the purchase of shares relating to a share transfer flat. They do however still exercise a rigid control over the occupier of the accommodation.
The final category is for those people who wish to come and work on the island but do not fall into either of the above categories. They may only occupy accommodation for which no housing qualifications are required and these are usually, ‘lodging houses’ guest house rooms, or rooms in private houses, (a house owner is permitted up to five paying lodgers whilst remaining exempt from the Lodging House Law).
For varying reasons, too in depth to list here, there is a small supply of expensive luxury property available to purchase or rent which does not come under the control of The Housing Committee and is therefore available to those persons who may be carrying out very responsible and well paid jobs, or simply just wishing to reside on the island, and who would not qualify in any of the aforementioned categories.
