Year on year, prices rose by 13.1%, a figure which is comfortably ahead of inflation. Local market transaction volumes declined slightly during the quarter, dropping below 200 for the first time since the start of 2010, but this may be in part have been due to seasonal factors.
The average price of a house in Guernsey has now risen to £396,500, some 20% higher than the position 12 months ago and an increase of 5.7% on the last quarter. At the same point last year, average values stood at £330,500.
There were a total of 192 transactions in the period, consisting of 174 local market and 18 open market sales. A drop in house sale volumes was the main reason for overall dip in volumes with numbers falling to 136 from 189 in the last quarter, whilst apartment sales were broadly stable at 22% of all local market transactions or 38 sales.
The local market total of 18 was up 3 on the position at the end of September and at its highest level during the year. The average value of open market transactions fell back to £940,000 from £1, 235,000 at the end of September, but this figure still suggests a rising trend for the year, although this data needs to be treated with caution, as the sample size is small. Of the 18 transactions, 8 were for over £1 million in value.
'This quarter, we have seen further solid gains in values, albeit against the background of slightly lower sales volumes. Average prices have now risen in the last three quarters consecutively, which suggests confidence has returned to the market,’ said Nigel Pascoe, director of lending for Skipton International, the Guernsey and Jersey mortgage specialists.
‘The fall off in volumes suggests we have now seen the pent up demand evident in the middle of the year working its way through the system. We witnessed abnormally low sales volumes in the first three months of 2010, but as confidence returned, sales volumes then jumped for six months, so now we are seeing the market settle again,’ he explained.
‘On balance we feel the market is returning to a more stable pattern, helped in part by the return of products which are effectively 100% loans, such as our Next Generation guarantor mortgage product. We are now seeing a return to higher levels of enquiries which we are confident will eventually translate into house purchases,’ he added.
