Downsizing 'doesn't make financial sense'

People in Guernsey looking to downsize their property are struggling to justify the cost of moving.

Liz Walton currently lives in a five-bedroom home with a wing and would like to move into a two-bed single-storey property, but said "the difference in price is very small compared with the difference in what you get".

The most recent property prices bulletin for Guernsey showed the average price of a two-bedroom bungalow was about £600,000, some £200,000 cheaper than the price of a four-bedroom.

Sasha Kazantseva-Miller, Vice-president of the Committee for Housing, said the main issue was supply and that the committee was "focused on unlocking the building of homes across all tenures and mixes".

Paul Thomson, who is in a similar situation, said: "Once you factor in document duty, legal fees and the other costs involved in moving, downsizing often doesn't make financial sense."

Kazantseva-Miller emphasised that there was a scheme where, if anyone was moving into a property which was 25% smaller in terms of TRP (Tax on Real Property) size, they got to pay a lower percentage of the document duty.

That could save islanders as much as £13,750 said Harry Round, senior associate and advocate at Collas Crill.

Round added that over-55s housing and sheltered housing also did not attract document duty in Guernsey, "which are the sort of properties often that people will find themselves downsizing to".

Walton, who is 79, however, said she did not feel that type of property suited her, but may have to be open to exploring it soon.

"There are just so few single-story buildings within a reasonable price range", she said.

Walton said it feels "wasteful" to be living in a house with empty bedrooms.

She said: "I used to rent out the wing, but that's an additional responsibility I just don't feel I can take on at this stage."

Thomson said there were "many who would consider downsizing if the financial barriers weren't so high".

"If duties or fees were reduced or waived in cases of genuine downsizing, it could encourage more movement within the housing market," Thomson said.

While looking to downsize, Julia Le Pelley said she liked the idea of a house swap to save costs.

"Then there could be some sort of agreement where you pass contracts at the same time, and the court fee was only payable on the difference between the value of the two houses," she said.

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