Social Housing rents (FOI)

Request

With regard to the Social Housing rents policy whereby rents are capped at 80%.

A

I would like to know what mathematical formula is used to accurately charge the 80% cap?

B

How often Social Housing private sector rents are reviewed to ensure the 80% cap charging is fair and then adjusted either up or down accordingly?

C

What are the current asking rents for each of the following within Social Housing that fully complies with the 80% capped rate -

Bedsit

• 1 Bedroom Flat
• 2 Bedroom Flat
• 3 Bedroom House
• 4 Bedroom House.

Response

A

There is no centralised mathematical formula for the calculation of social rents that are subject to the Social Rents Housing Policy (which caps social rents at up to 80% of the market rate). 

The social housing providers (state-owned Andium Homes and the independent Housing Trusts), whose rents are subject to the Social Rents Housing Policy, are responsible for ensuring that their rents comply with the Social Rents Housing Policy, and this is done through a valuation process. 

B

The policy to set rents at no more than 80% of market value was set out in the Government Plan 2022-2026 and confirmed by the States Assembly, taking effect on 1 January 2022. This was a 10% reduction on previous 90% of market value cap, which had been in place since 2013.

Andium Homes has internal rent evaluation procedures in place to ensure their rents can be adjusted if needed to comply with the Social Rents Housing Policy. Andium is subject to the Annual Rent Adjustment Policy, details of which have been published on www.gov.je and can be found in the link below (MD-H-2018-0021), which places a 4% cap on rent increases and can be further adjusted to ensure a rent increase for an individual property is not more than the 80% rent ceiling. For Andium tenancies secured under the previous 90% policy (specifically rents charged between 80-90% of the market value), rent levels are frozen until they fall back to 80% of the market rate. 

Annual Rent Adjustment Policy (gov.je)

The independent Housing Trusts are responsible for their own internal procedures to ensure that their rents continue to remain under the 80% rent ceiling, including after their rent levels have been reviewed and increases applied.

C

The individual social housing providers who are subject to the Social Rents Housing Policy hold their own data on the rents they charge. However, all the providers have offered their own indicative figures for the current rents they charge, which are set out in the tables in the attached document.

Table 20230331.pdf

Andium Homes is subject to Freedom of Information legislation (in its own right) and already makes its rental data available within the public domain through its website, which can be found via the link below. The inclusion of Andium’s rental data is therefore for ease of reference. 

www.andiumhomes.je 

Rents vary between social housing providers and depend on the age of individual tenancy agreements, methodologies and the market data used to determine their rents. Social housing providers typically use market rental data from Jersey-based estate agents to help determine the rental values for their properties, which also vary across their respective property portfolios according to several factors, for example, size, type, and location of a given property.