States working to help downsizing home owners

In 2023, 55% of households had at least one spare bedroom, the States said

The government is working with housing specialists to identify ways to make it more financially viable for islanders to downsize their homes.

The States of Guernsey said the island had a "high under-occupancy rate" and was working with Arc4 to research the issue, through surveys and drop-in sessions held earlier this month.

The most recent property prices bulletin for Guernsey showed the average price of a two bedroom house was about £520,000, about £50,000 cheaper than the price of a three-bedroom.

Charles Linsell, 69, has struggled to move out of his three-bedroom house for the past 18 months after finding it difficult to maintain the garden since his wife died.

The States said downsizing could help free up larger properties for families

He said: "The prices I'm liable to get for this house, I'm going to end up getting very similar for a smaller property."

The States of Guernsey is undertaking the work as part the Guernsey Housing Plan and the survey is open until the end of September.

Mr Linsell said: "Efforts should be made to ease this log-jam of people wanting to downsize and can't and that hopefully releases properties that people need to move into."

He suggested the States could oversee an "exchange scheme" to help ease the jam.

Stuart Leslie, head of residential sales at Savills estate agents said increasing the amount of downsizing was not necessarily a positive move for the housing market.

He said: "In reality, I think all you're doing is moving things down in a different way.

"I'm not sure it will actually help the amount of property available, it may cause a slight freeing up of transactions, but not any additional property."