GIVEN the impact of the credit crunch, which has depressed the level of mortgage lending, and Jersey property prices, which are now extraordinarily high, it is unsurprising that the Island’s housing market has stalled.

Factor in anticipation of a recession, and it is even easier to understand why people are currently so reluctant to press ahead with plans to move home or step onto the housing ladder for the first time. A variety of forces could revitalise the housing market. These include a new willingness on the part of the banks to lend and an eventual brighter outlook for the global economy.

Our Housing Minister, Senator Terry Le Main, has, however, decided that events should not be allowed to take their natural course. Instead, he hopes to inject new life into the market by reducing the waiting period for Jersey housing qualifications to ten years, a reduction of two years.

This is a questionable strategy. Even though there has been a shift away from housing policy as a means of preventing excessive immigration, it remains part of the Island’s migration control armoury. Can it really be sensible to water down the mechanism at a time of such economic uncertainty?

In such volatile circumstances – which make it impossible to gauge whether we shall be fighting for growth or struggling to cope with an overheating economy a couple of years down the road – is radical change really necessary?

It is, meanwhile, possible that the present cooling-off period is exactly what the Island’s housing market requires. With the price tag on a modest three-bedroom home having exceeded £500,000, the case for readjustment is not hard to make.

Although extending qualifications to a new band of residents could well kick-start house sales, it would be no bad thing if another force, falling prices, were to play a part in the process. Greater affordability would surely be more in line with Islanders’ best interests than a return to an escalating market with home ownership moving ever further away from many people’s realistic aspirations.

Lower prices would, of course, be unwelcome among those already owning homes, but they should be reminded that the theoretical value of a house is just that. If assets cannot be sold because the market has stagnated, it is in everyone’s interest if there is a downward price adjustment.