The Chief Minister says he would like to see more new houses built to help young people get on the property ladder.

Howard Quayle made his statement during a discussion in Tynwald regarding new housing purchases after a question was put to him by Jason Moorhouse (Arbory, Castletown and Malew).

Mr Moorhouse wanted to know what data the government collects about owner occupation and the purchase of new housing.

The Chief Minister replied: ’The main source of information that government holds about owner-occupiers, in terms of who they are, is from the census. This will again be collected in 2021 and will provide us with a wide range of data about our island’s residents.

’If the honourable member has specific queries about owner-occupiers, then I would encourage him to speak with officers in the Cabinet Office about this.’

He went on to say that property transactions were regulated with the Land Registry, including the name of the owner, address, location and the purchase price. He continued: ’It is not easy to distinguish between old and new properties as there is no market or indicator within the Land Registry to show this.

’Most larger developments of residential housing are often purchased directly from the developer under a process known as "transfer of part", he said.

The Chief Minister then said the Land Registry estimated 181 new properties were bought in 2020 and 137 in 2019.

Mr Moorhouse asked a supplementary question: ’Does the government recognise the potential of using this data as a way to better understand how new estates can become established communities and not just groupings of transitory people?’

The Chief Minister answered: ’Whenever we get data there are all sorts of ways of looking at it. What is transitory?

’We have got villages and small towns from where people go to work every day into Douglas - does that make them transitory or does he mean people coming over for short-term work on the island who do not have long-term requirements to stay here, or needs?’

He was asked by Bill Shimmins (Middle) if he was aware of a 12-month timelag for people to register at the Land Registry and said the data is out of date, which opened the possibility of a shorter period between a couple of months.

He also asked if he would support small changes to Land Registry procedures, in light of different declarations for buy-to-let properties and following the change in land registry fees, which would identify which is owner-occupier or buy-to-let.

Mr Quayle replied that Mr Shimmins made a valid point.

’I am more than happy to take the comments from the honourable member for Middle back to the relevant department, to see if there is a way without dramatically increasing the resources required to collate all this information,’ he said.

Chris Thomas (Douglas Central) asked if he accepted that the change from 16% to 22% could be significant, and if he shared his disappointment that government didn’t know the proportion of rented houses reliably.

The Chief Minister replied that he would hope the census next year would show this and that the percentage increase was significant and said: ’For me personally, the important question is do we provide enough housing for our young people to get on the property ladder?

’That is why, personally, I supported the Eastern Area Plan because it was creating over 400 - I think it was 480 - houses to help people get on the property ladder. I think that it is important, that we give our people, if they wish to own their own house, we give them the support to enable that to happen where possible.’

Mr Moorhouse then asked the Chief Minister if there was any way we could actually have more potential detail in terms of who is buying new houses, to which he replied that government could not say only locals could buy property and it was important to ensure the schemes constantly reviewed were improved to enable people living on the island the ability to get a property.