---
title: "Jersey consults on cutting minimum flat sizes below 43 sq m"
url: https://www.nsfw.info/jersey-minimum-flat-size-review-rabbit-hutches/
published: 2026-11-10T11:31:00+00:00
modified: 2026-11-10T11:31:00+00:00
author: "Chief Editor"
categories: ["Housing"]
image: https://www.nsfw.info/wp-content/uploads/2026/11/jersey-minimum-flat-size-review-rabbit-hutches-1024x572.webp
summary: "Jersey is consulting on reducing minimum home sizes below 43 sq m, but Reform Jersey and an estate agent warn of a glut of unsellable tiny properties."
publisher: NSFW (https://www.nsfw.info)
---

# Jersey consults on cutting minimum flat sizes below 43 sq m

**In brief:** Jersey’s government is consulting on reducing minimum home sizes in a bid to improve housing affordability and supply. The current minimum for a one-bedroom apartment is 43 square metres, already larger than England’s 37 square metres. Reform Jersey has warned the move could flood the market with “rabbit hutch” properties unsuitable for comfortable living.

## Shrinking Standards, Growing Concerns

Jersey’s Planning Minister, Sir Mark Boleat, has confirmed that minimum home size standards are under review as part of the island’s Common Strategic Policy, with the stated aim of addressing what the BBC describes as “housing quality, affordability and supply.” The consultation closed on Wednesday, with any policy change potentially announced before the end of the year.

At present, the minimum space standard for a one-bedroom apartment in Jersey sits at 43 square metres (465 square feet), a figure that already exceeds England’s minimum of 37 square metres (400 square feet). The proposal would open the door to units smaller than 43 square metres, though no specific new minimum has been put forward. Sir Mark framed the idea in terms of choice, telling the BBC: “We want to say you’ve got an option of sharing but also you’ve got the option of having your own very small unit.”

It is, on the face of it, a reasonable enough ambition. Jersey’s housing affordability crisis is well-documented, and if smaller units genuinely translate into lower purchase prices, first-time buyers might finally get a foot on the ladder without needing a second mortgage on their soul. The question, as ever, is whether the savings actually reach buyers, or simply improve developer margins.

## The Estate Agent’s Reality Check

Jeremy Rossignol, founder and managing director of Le Rossignol Estate Agents, offered a measured view. “If they can be constructed for a lower cost and the savings get passed onto the buyers, then it’s great, in theory,” he told the BBC. The caveat, however, was pointed: “But you also need to be mindful of all of the other smaller one-bed flats on the market, there’s an abundance of those.”

That observation deserves more attention than it might initially receive. If the island already has a surplus of smaller one-bedroom properties struggling to find buyers, building yet more, only tinier, risks compounding the problem rather than solving it. A glut of unsellable micro-flats would do nothing for affordability and rather a lot for blight.

## Reform Jersey Sounds the Alarm

Lindsay Feltham, co-leader of Reform Jersey, was considerably less diplomatic in her assessment. “What we need to avoid is where we’ve got a glut of properties that are just not suitable for people to live in,” she told the BBC. “We don’t want an island full of rabbit hutches that people can’t live in comfortably and that ultimately people find difficult to sell on if they buy it as an affordable first property.”

It is a fair warning, and one that cuts across the usual political lines. The concern is not ideological but practical: a first-time buyer who purchases a property they later cannot sell has not been helped onto the housing ladder, they have been handed a very small, very expensive trap. The long-term consequences for the island’s property market, and for the individuals involved, could be significant.

The consultation results will now be reviewed, with housing leaders indicating a policy decision could come before the year is out. Whether the government opts for a cautious adjustment or a more dramatic reduction in standards remains to be seen.

## The NSFW Perspective

There is something faintly absurd about a government consulting on how small it can make homes before people start complaining. Jersey is not short of ambition when it comes to housing policy, but it does have a habit of reaching for the simplest lever available, in this case, making the product smaller rather than making the process cheaper or the planning system faster.

The instinct to build smaller as a route to affordability is not without precedent internationally, but it tends to work best when it is part of a broader package of reforms, not a standalone tweak to a number on a spreadsheet. Sir Mark’s framing around “flexibility” and “choice” is reassuring in tone, but the proof will be in the planning permissions. If Jersey ends up with a generation of micro-flats that nobody wants to buy a second time, the island will have solved nothing, and will have done so at considerable expense to the people it was trying to help.

*Source: [BBC News](https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cqm2d7kj48vno)*