Guernsey Households Allocate Nearly a Third of Income to Housing

States’ data indicates that residents in Guernsey allocate an average of almost one-third of their earnings to housing expenses. The Better Life Indicator report specifies that the typical household’s post-tax income is £30,960, with 30.5% of this amount dedicated to housing. The States report that this percentage places Guernsey higher than most developed nations regarding housing affordability. Deputy Lindsay de Sausmarez, President of Environment and Infrastructure, expressed that she was “not at all surprised” by these findings and confirmed efforts are underway to address housing costs. The report’s data was benchmarked against member countries of the Organisation for Economic Development and Cooperation (OECD). De Sausmarez stated, “We have always scored as relatively very expensive compared to other jurisdictions and that shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone.” She continued, “We’ve been hopping up and down trying to make this exact point. All our data that we’ve put together in the Guernsey housing plan, shows that systemically we have got an unaffordable housing market. We are in a market which is by definition, systemically unaffordable and that’s why we are putting in so much effort to tackling the problem.” De Sausmarez further commented, “It is not just about housing supply, there are an awful lot of areas which need support and intervention to make them work better. We are now working toward a strategic direction, that’s all pulled together in the form of the Guernsey Housing Plan.” The proportion of income allocated to housing represents only one of 24 metrics examined within the report. In contrast, the island performs more favorably in numerous other categories when benchmarked against OECD countries, achieving high scores for average household income, life expectancy, and its minimal homicide rate. For updates, follow BBC Guernsey on X and Facebook. Story ideas can be submitted to channel.islands@bbc.co.uk. Copyright 2024 BBC. All rights reserved. The BBC disclaims responsibility for the content of external websites. Information regarding our external linking policy is available.