Islanders live in secure, quality homes that they can afford

Why Is This Important?

Affordable, quality housing is a key part of Jersey's physical, economic, and social fabric. High demand for, and insufficient supply of, housing can result in a range of negative consequences, including:

• a lack of housing choice
• poor-quality, unhealthy and overcrowded housing
• declining affordability and home ownership.

These factors have a proven knock-on effect on many aspects of people's quality of life, including physical and mental wellbeing, financial security, work/ life balance, educational achievement and life satisfaction.

Why Is This Important?

Well-designed and well-constructed housing is critical for people’s wellbeing, not just for aesthetic and environmental reasons. Poorly designed, inefficient and unaffordable housing not only affects individual and household wellbeing and expenses, but is a cost to everyone as it impacts on health, social spending and the environment. The homes we live in today will provide most of Jersey’s housing stock for the next 20 years. Investing in the improvement of this existing stock over time will benefit health, energy use, household costs and life satisfaction.

Why Is This Important?

Having the security of knowing they have somewhere to call home - which is within their means - is key to Islanders' quality of life. If fewer people can afford to buy their own home, or there is an insufficient supply of social housing, the private rented sector becomes their only viable housing option. If this contributes to an imbalance in the supply and demand for rental accommodation, lower income households will be the worst affected. This can lead to overcrowding, poorer housing choices and growing demand for social housing or income support.