Vacant States owned properties (FOI)

Request

Please provide me with a list of the States owned properties that're currently lying vacant.

Please include detail of the nature of the property and an estimate of its square footage.

Plus details of the condition they're in eg derelict / disused etc.

Response

There are 22 properties out of a total of 864 properties (2.5%) that are currently vacant, where the term “property” may consist of a site that contains a number of individual building units.

• nine of those are void properties that are temporarily vacant awaiting new tenants, with the previous tenant having vacated within the past three months

• five of the properties are vacant pending future redevelopment

• four of the properties have been identified for disposal, three of which are being actively marketed for sale

• the remaining four properties need fairly extensive refurbishment prior to any re-letting

The number of vacant properties has reduced from 29 to 22 since a similar question on unoccupied properties was asked in August 2016. This is due in part to the sale of properties such as Oxford Road Le Seelleur Workshop and the adjacent residential property 9 Chevalier Road, Thorp House on Rouge Bouillon and Astral House on Great Union Road, which were surplus to requirements.

The total floor area of the units that make up the 22 properties that are currently vacant is approximately 164,265 sq. ft. Primarily the vacant properties consist mostly of residential units, in addition to retail, storage, agricultural use and one office building.

A detailed list of the 22 specific properties that are currently vacant is being withheld under Article 42(a) of the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011.

Exemption(s) applied to this request:

Article 42 - Law Enforcement

Information is qualified exempt information if its disclosure would, or would be likely to, prejudice –

(a) the prevention, detection or investigation of crime, whether in Jersey or elsewhere;

Justification for exemption

The information is being withheld because it is deemed that its disclosure could lead to the properties in question being targeted by criminals and becoming the targets of vandalism.