THE Jersey Homebuy scheme, the Island’s version of shared equity purchase, looks very much like a wasted opportunity. It was launched with the best of intentions, but it appears to have been structured in a way that will help very few young people to put that first and crucial foot on the housing ladder.

It goes without saying that the fundamentals of the Jersey housing market are, for the foreseeable future, going to make it very difficult for first-time buyers to find a property within a reasonable price range irrespective of special deals or discounts.

To complicate matters, it is also true that the present economic climate is making it more difficult than ever for borrowers. Having been severely mauled in the credit crisis, banks are refusing to lend many times mortgage applicants’ salaries in the way that was once the rule rather than the exception.

However, even if the current state of the mortgage market is set aside, the arithmetic of the Homebuy scheme does not seem to add up. The combination of the minimum price of the houses it applies to – even with the special discount of 35 per cent – the size of deposits required, and the levying of stamp duty on the total price of houses instead of on the discounted cost means that this is largely a paper scheme with no foundation in the real world.

As mortgage expert David Troy has said, it is time for politicians to ‘get a grip on reality’ in respect of proposals that, very nearly, amount to a hollow promise leading only to disappointment.

Restrictions on scheme applicants who have already bought property through the share transfer process have, meanwhile, served only to make matters worse. Willingness to make sacrifices to buy a starter flat should be seen as evidence of determination and should not be a disqualification.

It is clear that if the Homebuy scheme is to make any tangible difference to Islanders’ lives it must be taken back to the drawing board. No one is doubting that the scheme was devised with in the genuine hope that it would work, but poor design, plus global changes beyond our control, have made a nonsense of what was initially envisaged.