Local Market property sales continue to be buoyant although prices remain competitive.
The latest Quarterly Residential Property Prices Bulletin for the first quarter of 2019 is published today. There were 177 Local Market transactions during the first quarter of 2019, 59 fewer than the previous quarter but 37 more than the same quarter of 2018. This was the highest number of first quarter transactions since 2007.
‘Swoffers has had a really busy start to 2019 and this is reflected in the latest sales figures,’ says Andre Austin, Swoffers Director.
‘Average purchase prices will always fluctuate depending on the number of houses sold and at what level, but it is interesting to note that the Q1 average purchase price of £425,394 is 4.4% higher than the first quarter of 2018.
‘Competitively priced properties presented well are selling quickly and at the moment the problem is one of lack of supply at the £500k to £750k section of the market where we have lots of buyers but a limited number of properties available,’ says Andre.
The States of Guernsey has also published supplementary data on property rental and purchase prices.
Average purchase prices for one bedroom flats, three bedroom bungalows and four bedroom bungalows/houses increased between 2017 and 2018 whereas two bedroom flats and bungalows and two and three bedroom houses decreased.
The total turnover on purchased Local Market properties in 2018 was 3.9% which was 0.5 percentage points higher than in 2017. Two bedroom houses had the highest turnover (at 5.4% of the total stock of that property type).
Average rental prices also increased across all these categories.
The data also shows that the raw median price (realty only) of the 18 Open Market transactions in the first quarter of 2019 was £1,291,875 compared with £746,000 in the first quarter of 2018, when there were 19 transactions.
‘Interest in the Open Market remains high at all levels of the market,’ says Shauna Clapham, Swoffers Director.
‘Our experienced Open Market sales team has welcomed lots of new enquiries this year but prices remain competitive.’
