To be honest, the legal status of two islands - Jersey and Guernsey, just off shore the French Atlantic coast, always intrigued me. How was it possible that territories, being part of the British Islands, are considered to be "offshore zone"? Perhaps this was just another joke of the British constitutional system (I say system, not constitution, because the United Kingdom has no written basic law), but how it was possible for the European Union to allow all this mess? So when I looked deeper into this constitutional case, what I found exceeded my imagination. These two islands, which pledged allegiance to the British Queen and used the British pound as currency, were neither British nor part of the United Kingdom, nor part of the European Union either. They turned out to be almost independent states, not completely independent of course because of their allegiance to the Queen, but not as a British monarch but as a Duke of ... Normandy.

How this has been made possible? The Channel Islands were integral part of the French Duchy of Normandy in the 10th century and automatically became dependant upon the English (not British) crown when the Duke of Normandy William became King of England in 1066. Later on, with the French as official language, the islands became almost autonomous states and their rights and freedoms were confirmed in many Royal Charters and the so-called Letters Patent. This happened in the dark Middle Ages. More recently they established special relationships with the European Union, which have been set out in 1973 when the United Kingdom entered the organization called at the time European Community. In one word, these protocols allowed the Channel Islands not to harmonize their taxation and other internal policies with Brussels.

It would be exaggerated to state that these two main islands (Jersey and Guernsey) and several smaller ones are identical in their internal policies. There are some notable distinctions even if they both enjoy equal statute in their relations with London and Brussels. Guernsey, which includes administration on the other Channel Islands (except Jersey), has separated its real estate market on 2 and with some qualifications on 3 uneven parts. Because of the huge demand to move there and the few available properties, some 50 years ago the local administration in Guernsey (pop. 60,000) has decided to guarantee first the housing needs of the local population. When browsing the properties for this island, people probably will notice the division between "local" and "open" market. Well, the local market is supposed to be occupied by local residents or those who have received a special housing license by the local housing authority. Licenses are granted to those, which employment on the islands is defined as essential to the community well being. Another category properties exclusively reserved to local residents are the so-called "state housings". About 1/10 of all properties (1,800 out of 20,000) can be purchased by foreigners. Usually these are luxurious properties and their prices in average are 2-3 times higher than for the average properties on the "local market". There are no new permits for residential developments on the "open market", which can explain the quick property inflation.

The other Channel Island Jersey (pop. 90,000) has slightly different system of priorities for determining who should be allowed to buy property. The prospective buyers and tenants are separated into more than 10 groups, for example one group includes those born in Jersey with 10 years residence on the island; another group includes people that have lived on the island for more than 18 years; third is composed of those foreigners which employment is essential for the community well being, etc. They all have to be granted consent by the housing committee before being able to buy real estate.

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See also the directory of companies providing real estate services in, and general real estate information of Channel Islands.