There have been a number of people recently who have been getting started on the property ladder. Jim and Clancy have just grabbed themselves new places, Tilesey has bought a flat, Markiss bought his house last year…
and I’m starting to get a bit narked by all this nesting.
You want to know why?
Simply it’s because I can’t buy a house in Jersey!
Now those of you who know the situation in Jersey may as well stop reading now as you’ll know everything I’m about to rant about. For those of you who are un-aware let’s start with a little background.
Jersey operates a very strict immigration control system. It has to. It’s only 9 miles by 6 and anyone who’s seen the place will agree that it’s a lovely place to live. The two main controls that Jersey has in place to deter unwanted immigrants are both time based license systems. For jobs we have the Regulation of Undertakings which basically means you can’t get a job without a license until you’ve been in the Island for over 5 years. Licenses to work are like gold dust but that’s not my problem. I’’ve officially been resident for over 6 years and so can apply for any job I wish.
No, my problem derives from the second control - Residential Qualifications (or Quallys for short). Property in the Island is divided into a number of Categories which correspond to different levels of qually. The are three basic types of property - A-H, J Cat and Un-Qualified.
So how does one get quallys? In one of three ways. You are either born with them or marry someone who already has them. You can buy them; known as a 11k qually as you have to guarantee to pay at least £11,000 in income tax per year which requires an asset base of some £25,000,000 or you can wait until you have been resident for over 17 years and then you are granted your quallys… 17 years! I’ll be 41 in 17 years time!
As a resident with no quallys I am restricted in a whole host of ways. Firstly I am only allowed to rent non-qualified accommodation. Of course non-quals places are rented out at a premium - paying £800 per month for a one bed room flat is not unusual - and are generally not as nice as qualified places. Secondly I’m not allowed to buy a house over here…
Well, that’s not strictly true. I could buy a place but I’m not allowed to live in it unless I bought a non-quallied place. There are no non-quallied places for sale and when they do come up they are normally bought for stupidly high prices by property companies who know they can let them out to unqualified residents for extortionate rents.
So you may be able to see why I’m not too happy with this situation. Jersey is my home. I live here, work here, have family and friends here and fully intend to continue doing all of the above. Despite all of this I am still considered to be a second class citizen and am denied basic rights until I either make a few million quid or am 24 years away from retirement…
It saddens me that I will have to leave this fair isle because of some bureaucratic immigration system which seems to favour the rich over the hard working*. So to all of you who have bought or are thinking of buying your own place, whatever the nightmares you may encounter in paperwork and legal beagles, just be thankful that you live in a country that respects your right to own your own home because you could live in Jersey**.
*I was tempted to add “Comrade” but who knows if the FBI reads this site…
** As a side note property prices in Jersey are also astoundingly high (think central London prices and add a bit) and so a one bedroom starter flat would cost me approx £160,000 even if I could buy one … which I can’t.
24/06/2004 at 6:06 pm Permalink
Youch! That definitely bites the big one. They’re creating an artificially scarce market that drives up prices. 800 pound for a single bedroom apartment? Holy smokes! That’s almost $1500.
Sounds like you Jersey residents need to get some new blood into the political works.
24/06/2004 at 7:06 pm Permalink
Absolutely. The current administration is trying to sort out these problems but it is too good for too many people. For example a farmer dies and leaves his house and a field to his kids. The field which would be worth next to nothing elsewhere is suddenly a multi million pound windfall for the kids. Plus there are any number of building companies and letting agencies who are quite happy to lift a hell of a lot of money off people who want to live here.
Even if they did remove the qualification barrier the prices are still going to remain abnormally high unless the government steps in and forces landlord / owners to lower them which is never going to happen…
24/06/2004 at 8:06 pm Permalink
Prices would be high since land is at a premium but they would be hella lower than they are now in the artificial market.
I hope they get that straightened out for you.
24/06/2004 at 9:06 pm Permalink
That sounds crazy! I’m a bit confused though - how can property companies buy properties if they don’t live there?
Some 230+ years ago some King George guy tried some stupid stuff over here and we dumped a bunch of tea in the boston harbor. It sounds like Jersey’s Admin needs to have their tea dumped…
24/06/2004 at 10:06 pm Permalink
oh robbie roo. Don’t let it get you down, the Jersey admin people just smell, really bad, of po… onna stick
You could always come live with me up here in wonderful Durham. Or if not live, at least come visit!!!
AxXx
24/06/2004 at 10:06 pm Permalink
hmmm, po onna stick? interesting tellytubby images there. Of course i meant to say poo.
25/06/2004 at 6:06 am Permalink
That really sucks. But it’s hard to see how they break the impass, unless they can redesignate some of the land for non-quallys.
25/06/2004 at 2:06 pm Permalink
Clancy - yeah I think a Jersey Tea Party would certainly re-dress the balance. Unfortunately Jersey’s situation is rather more fragile than that. We are almost wholly reliant on off-shore finance to keep thje place going and I don’t think they’d stick around through a civil war.
Oh and property in jersey can be bought by anyone who can afford it - the buy to let market over here is huge with 3 or 4 main companies dominating the market.
Simon - they are considering doing away with the quallys system altogether for rented accomadation and reducing the time before non-quallied people can buy to 10 years … 10 years - how magnanimous of them!
Helen - You’re spot on. Interestingly enough there was a BBC Radio 5 documentary about Jersey as a Tax Haven on a few weeks ago. They worked out that for the tax breaks to be beneficial you need to have liquid assests of somewhere in the region of ???30,000,000.00!!!
Oh and Ali - po on a stick? You mean something like this?
25/06/2004 at 2:06 pm Permalink
I heard about that while I was in Jersey-while I understand that it’s to keep the “holiday-makers” cough*taxshelter*cough out, it really penalizes the people that live and work there and want a bit of their own land to live on, get drunk on, and have a good shag on.
If you start a Donate for Rob’s House Fund, I will definitely be contributing.
25/06/2004 at 3:06 pm Permalink
rob come back to england when your 2/3 years commercial experiance is up (which must be soon) and get a job here, earn shitloads of cash, start your own company and go back and buy jersey.
Oh and po on a stick is just wrong.
26/06/2004 at 12:06 am Permalink
Dude!!! you found a Po onna stick! No way! I’m gonna have nightmares…