House prices remain out of reach

Thursday 13 November 2014

The average house price is almost 12 times the typical salary in Jersey, according to figures out today.

Stats released this morning show that despite no change in house prices over the last three months, the gap between earnings and house prices remains huge.

The figures show that three-bedroom houses were sold for an average of £512,000 between the start of July and the end of September this year. During the same period, one-bedroom flats sold for an average of £205,000 and two-bedroom flats went for £327,000.

The figures also show that the relationship between the typical house price (£413,000) and average earnings (£34,840 per year, according to figures from June) was similar to London boroughs such as Hackney or Harrow.

Figures for the third quarter of this year showed that turnover was slightly lower than this time last year, and that while the cost of flats was slightly down, the cost of houses was slightly up.

All of this comes less than a fortnight after Chief Minister Ian Gorst pledged to make housing a key focus of the newly-elected Council of Ministers.

In his opening speech in his second term as Chief Minister, Senator Gorst promised to do more to create new homes, saying: “It is not surprising that in an Island such as ours we face challenges with the supply and affordability of homes but we need to improve that supply and to do that we need to build.”