Government plans to make it more difficult for high-value residents to move to Jersey

Phil Wellbrook reports...

Jersey's Chief Minister has put forward plans to make it harder for wealthy people to move to the island.

At present, anyone who earns more than £850,000 per year can move to Jersey, bypassing the rule that people must have lived in the island for 10 years to gain residential status.

The current minimum tax payable on the income of high-value residents is £170,000 per year, and the minimum price to buy a property is £1.75 million.

The minimum income would increase by £400,000:

The annual tax contribution would increase by £80,000:

The minimum price of property to buy would increase by £1,750,000:

The minimum house price could then rise to £5,000,000, the government has indicated.

There will now be an expectation that applicants to the high-value residency scheme hold at least £10 million in assets in order to be successful.

Applicants will also have to prove that they will add value to the island by providing a minimum "social, economic and environmental responsibility" contribution, which could be a one-off contribution when they arrive.

While some islanders believe that wealthy residents bring value to the island through investments and charity donations, others believe that they're jumping the queue for services that some people struggle to access.

Deputy Sam Mézec, Leader of Reform Jersey, says the government should be more transparent about the specific contributions that high-value residents make.

He said: "We talk about the benefits of the scheme but nobody’s actually ever provided tangible evidence of those benefits for us to judge whether the scheme is worth it entirely.

"We’re told that they come here and donate to charity but how much? And does it outweigh the potential negatives there are to the scheme? The government has never done a proper study on that."

Rob Morton, CEO of estate agency Hawk Estates, welcomes the proposed changes, which form part of the Chief Minister's government plan.

He says "islanders will benefit" from the rising threshold for high-value residents, and that the Chief Minister has "listened to both sides".

Rob believes that the majority of high-value residents invest in the islands, but that there is a lack of knowledge surrounding the impact these wealthy people have.

Gill Hunt, who owns Hunt Estates, says she is confident that properties below the proposed minimum price will still sell.

She said: "I think the £3.5m is fine, and people will still buy at that level. There are local people that buy up to that threshold.

"Any 21Es coming into the island would generally buy higher than that anyway."

Potential high-value residents can apply under the current regulations until 1 July 2023, when the new rules are set to come in.