Jersey's new first-time buyer scheme only likely to help around 60 households

A new scheme created to help Jersey residents get a foot onto the property ladder is likely to only help between 30 and 60 households.

The island's new housing minister, Deputy Sam Mézec, is preparing to launch the £10 million plan in the coming weeks.

When asked how many people will benefit from the plans Deputy Mézec said: "In the first few tranches a maximum of 60 [households] probably. But that gives us a really good opportunity to measure how much of a success it is first time round. What kinds of people benefit from it and if there are tweaks we need to make.

"If it proves to be popular and proves to be successful then I'm going to want to push to get some more funding for it, so we can keep rolling the scheme and keep supporting more people."

The plans would consist of a shared equity scheme with the government getting a part of the profits when the property is sold in the future.

On whether Deputy Mézec thought using £10 million of public money to help just 60 households, he argued that the scheme had potential to grow: "There'll be greater value for money over time because when those people sell those homes, when they're ready to move on to their second home, the uplift in the value of the property, we'll get our share back from that.

"That means we can recycle that money to then go back to helping the next generation of people. So it's sustainable."

The support would only be for first-time buyers and could cover up to 40% of the cost of a property. It would not apply to new builds but secondary market homes only.