MORE than half of the flats in Dandara’s Spectrum and Century Buildings developments were sold to investors here and overseas, according to Deputy Sarah Ferguson (pictured).

She says that figures from the Jersey Financial Services Commission show that over half of the units in the three developments went to ‘buy-to-let’ investors. And of those, the majority went to overseas investors.

But the Population Office say the figures are unrepresentative – and that a wider study showed that 18% of share transfer properties are owned by people without housing qualifications or companies, and that the remainder are owned by people with qualifications.

Deputy Ferguson – whose claims are published in a letter to the JEP (see Letters to the Editor) – says that outside ownership of the properties pumps up the price of housing in the Island and has a knock-on effect on States spending on rent subsidies given to Islanders who are leasing property.