Island faces rental sector crunch, MHK says

An Isle of Man housing needs assessment has now been completed

The Isle of Man is facing a rental market "crunch", the government's housing lead has warned.

David Ashford, who is chairman of the Housing and Communities Board, said pressures in the rental market would be the "big problem for housing over the next few years".

It comes after government figures showed that more than 60 properties were bought using first time buyers support schemes in the last two years.

Mr Ashford said there was "a low level of landlords coming into the market" and many existing landlords were "selling up".

He said he spoke to people daily who were struggling to find affordable rental properties, something that was "becoming increasingly hard for people".

'Adequate housing'

He said the issue stemmed from an "obsession" in the past for people to own their home.

While that was "a great ambition", there were "some people who will never be in that position" and "we've got to make sure they've got adequate housing too", he said.

Mr Ashford said a housing needs assessment had now been completed, which the Housing and Communities Board would present to the Council of Ministers.

He said the document, which is expected to be made public within the next two months, made "clear what the housing need is not just on island now but where it's projected to be in the next 10, 15, 20 years".

"That will be very useful for driving things forward," he said.

David Ashford said the government support schemes were under review

The first time buyer schemes were "all currently under review" and one of the board's top priorities was a review of shared equity schemes, Mr Ashford said.

Financial assistance is available to eligible first time buyers through two shared equity schemes.

The Department of Infrastructure provides an equity loan of up to 30% of the property purchase price and takes an equivalent share in the value of the property in return.

While recent figures showed the number of first time buyers using government support schemes had "bounced back", Mr Ashford called for further action on public housing, which he said had not seen growth in the last 15 to 20 years.

He said: "We do need to do even more, particularly if we're going to encourage the population growth that's required for the economic strategy.

"Housing is going to be absolutely essential for that."