/ Author: SPF

Pierre Blampied, our MD took up his regular guest spot on BBC Guernsey last week (19 January) with John Randall. He was joined by Deputy Heidi Soulsby.

One of the topics discussed was the Guernsey Housing Association’s (GHA) Partial Ownership Scheme. Deputy Soulsby expressed her concern that the scheme on its own was not assisting the market, adding that the GHA has been very good but should not be the only solution for people looking to get onto the property ladder for the first time.

Pierre expressed his support of the GHA before saying that it wasn’t having a massive impact on the first time buyers’ market; his suggestion would be that it should be run concurrently with a States backed first time buyers’ scheme. Pierre believes both schemes would have their place in the market and if both these options were available in Guernsey, we would be in a strong position. He added that assistance from Government is needed in order to help first time buyers to fund their deposit so that they can buy a property. Lenders had indicated to Pierre that they would be keen to assist first time buyers if there was a deposit scheme funded by the States of Guernsey, as opposed to a commercial lender.

Heidi agreed with Pierre stating that it is better for people in the long term if they can get their foot on the private housing market and other solutions are needed.

If you missed Pierre and Deputy Soulsby on the show, you can listen again by following this link: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p03dpnbx (from 01:41:40).

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