Property
Home search
Home search is finding and securing somewhere to live in a market where your residential status decides which homes are open to you at all. We work the qualified and registered markets separately, because they behave differently and most people only get told about one of them.
What is included
- A status check first, so the search covers property you are actually permitted to occupy
- A shortlist across agents and off-market, rather than one agent's stock
- Viewings arranged around a preliminary visit, in a sensible order and geography
- An honest read on each parish — the commute, the light, the schools, what it is like in February
- Offer strategy, and management of the purchase through to completion with your advocate
- Rental negotiation, referencing and the deposit and inventory process where you are leasing
We are not an estate agent
Estate agents are paid by the seller and take a commission on the transaction. That is a legitimate model and it is not neutral advice about whether a house is right for you.
We do not act for sellers or landlords, and our fee is fixed rather than a share of the price, so nothing we are paid grows if you buy a more expensive house. Where an agent, developer or landlord offers us a commission, you are told in writing before we accept it and you can tell us to decline it.
The parish question
Jersey is nine miles by five and the twelve parishes are genuinely different places. West-facing St Ouen and St Brelade get the weather and the sunsets and a real summer commute. St Saviour and St Clement sit close to town and to schools. Trinity and St John are rural and properly dark at night.
Nobody buying from off-island gets this right by luck. It is the single strongest argument for a preliminary visit.
Two markets, and you are only shown one
Jersey property splits by who is permitted to occupy it. Qualified property is open to Entitled and Licensed occupiers and to High Value Residents; registered property is what is open to everyone else. They are separate markets with separate stock, separate prices and separate agents' attention.
An arriving buyer is usually shown whichever market the first agent they rang works in. If that is the wrong one, the search is wasted before it starts.
We check the status position before we look at a single listing, which sounds obvious and is skipped constantly.
The preliminary visit
Two or three days on the island, with viewings arranged in a sensible order and geography rather than in the order agents offered them. Between viewings, the commute driven at the hour you would actually drive it, the school run walked, and an evening spent in the parish you think you want.
It is the single most useful thing an off-island buyer can do and the thing most often skipped to save a flight. A wrong parish costs a year on a lease. It costs considerably more on a purchase, where the exit runs through the Royal Court and a stamp duty bill.
What we do not do
We do not convey. That is a Jersey advocate or solicitor, through the Royal Court, and it is not optional. We do not survey, and we do not value.
We also do not make the decision. We will tell you plainly when a property is wrong, and then it is yours.
How the fee works
Fixed, quoted after the first conversation, and paid by you. We take nothing from an agent, a developer or a landlord, on either side of a transaction.
That is the whole point of the arrangement. An adviser earning a slice of the purchase has an interest in a purchase happening and in it being large. Ours is in you living somewhere that works.
What this does not cover
Conveyancing, which is done by a Jersey advocate or solicitor through the Royal Court, and survey work.
Our regulatory positionsets out in full what we do and what we are not permitted to do.
Before you ring
- Can you show me property before my status is decided?
- We can show you the market and explain which parts of it are open to you on each possible outcome. What we will not do is build a shortlist of homes you may turn out not to be permitted to occupy, which is how off-island searches usually waste their first month.
- Do you charge a percentage of the purchase price?
- No. A fixed fee, quoted in writing beforehand and paid by you. A percentage would give us an interest in you spending more, which is the opposite of what you are paying for.
- Can you do the conveyancing?
- No. Jersey conveyancing goes through the Royal Court and is done by a Jersey advocate or solicitor. We manage the purchase around them and keep the timetable honest.
- Is it worth coming over to view, or can this be done remotely?
- Come over. Video viewings tell you about a house and nothing about a parish, and the parish is the decision that is hard to undo. Two or three days on the island, with the commute driven at the right hour, changes most people's shortlist.
See the island before you commit to a parish
Tell us your status position, your budget and what the household needs. We will map what is genuinely available and build a viewing trip around it.