House prices have risen by almost 15% in the last year. According to the Guernsey Quarterly Residential Property Bulletin, the mix adjusted average purchase price for Local Market properties was £509,906 in the first quarter of 2021, 3.4% higher than the previous quarter and 14.8% higher than the first quarter of 2020.
The number of house sales unsurprisingly fell during the first quarter of the year, due to lockdown being in place for two months.
There were 167 Local Market transactions during the first quarter of 2021, 178 fewer than the previous quarter and seven fewer than the same quarter of 2020. While January and February’s sale numbers were affected by restrictions put in place to slow the spread of coronavirus, the March figure of 79 sales was the highest March figure since 2011.
Swoffers director Andre Austin said the level of demand post-lockdown this year was not unexpected.
‘We knew there was a lot of pent up demand coming out of this last lockdown – people were ready, willing and able to buy – and there’s no sign of this letting up. The challenge remains a shortage of housing stock,’ he said.
The average price of Open Market properties was just over £1.4m. This is the raw median price (realty only) and there were 18 Open Market transactions in January to March 2021.
Local Market rental property cost an average of £1,498 in the first quarter of 2021, 8.9% higher than the previous quarter and 9.9% higher than the first quarter of 2020.
