Home sales hit record high in 2017

Home sales hit record high in 2017

The average cost of a three-bedroom home now stands at £573,000 – the highest ever recorded.

The latest House Price Index report produced by the States Statistics Units revealed that 713 flats were bought in Jersey in 2017 – the highest number since 2010 and 26 per cent more than in 2016.

Meanwhile, the number of house sales was 793 – a decline of six per cent compared to 2016, but still the second-highest annual figure during the past eight years.

Total property sales have now increased every year since 2010, when 960 units were sold compared to 1,506 last year.

House prices continued to climb in 2017 and were three per cent higher than a year earlier, with the average cost of a three-bedroom home reaching record levels.

The increase in sales was welcomed by property experts who said that the demand had long outstripped supply in the Island’s housing market, which has been sluggish for the last decade.

Roger Trower, managing director of estate agents Broadlands, said that a large number of newly built or refurbished flats came onto the market last year, which had been bought by both investors and owner-occupiers.

‘There has been a lack of supply and you have the seen the units at Westmount and the old Jersey College for Girls [site], as well as units at Castle Quay, come onto the market,’ he said.

‘The demand is there at the lower end of the market, where people might want to buy a flat as an investment, or because they need somewhere to live.

‘With interest rates so low at the moment you are earning next to nothing in bank accounts, whereas with a property you can get a four to five per cent return on your investment.

‘The other thing is the banks are becoming more willing to lend and what they are offering has improved.’

Gill Hunt of Hunt Estates, who is the Channel Islands’ representative for the National Association of Estates Agents, said, however, that demand for properties was still outstripping supply in Jersey – in particular for family homes.

‘There is still a lot of demand out there especially for three-bedroom homes and for two-bedroom cottages,’ she said.

‘We get a bottleneck with three-bedroom homes, where if you have a house worth around £500,000 it can cost you £650,000 to £700,000 to move up to a four-bed.

‘So people tend to stay in them for a long time or just build extensions.’

Lorraine Mclean, mortgage sales manager at Skipton International, said that the increase in sales showed that people had ‘great confidence’ in the Jersey property market.

‘It was an encouraging end to the year, especially coupled with record highs from employment figures, leaving people in a very good position to invest in property,’ she said.

‘We have continued to see increased demand for mortgages into 2018, but don’t wish to see prices continue to rise beyond the rate of inflation.’

The average cost of a home in Jersey at the end of last year was £483,000, which was the same as in Greater London and more than double the UK average of £226,000.

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