An attempt to usher in mandatory pre-sale agreements in Jersey has been kicked down the road after a leading local politician had his plans to prevent gazumping and gazundering stopped by the island’s Council of Ministers.

Although not part of the UK and classed as a Crown dependency, if Deputy Max Andrews’ attempt to reform the island’s ‘archaic’ residential sales process had been successful, it would have been the property industry’s first market to adopt mandatory pre-sales agreements.

But rather than approve his plans, the Council of Ministers instead plans to consult estate agents, lenders, conveyancers and the public during a consultation due to be completed by June 2027.

Andrews has told the BBC that this is a ‘good compromise’ but also saying that “so many people have shared with me their experiences of gazumping and gazundering and it’s important we look to modernise our property transaction process, we need to provide more certainty for people and do more to protect people”.

Quite archaic

The island’s housing minister Sam Mezec says Andrews was right to “highlight that our property transaction process is quite archaic and we do know that there are people who experience difficulties within that, transactions falling at the last minute and people ending up with their hearts broken when they have their hearts set on a new home.

“But I think there is probably more to it than introducing pre-sale agreements so I was grateful that Deputy Max Andrews agreed with us that instead we would do a wider consultation on the whole thing to find an all-encapsulating solution.”

Research published by Propertymark recently revealed that a majority of agents believe ‘up front information’ in one form or another makes transactions faster and less likely to fall through, the UK industry has yet to wholeheartedly embrace the French approach, where buyer and seller committ financially and contractually to a sales much earlier on.