Jersey housing market in good health despite price drop

Thursday 20 August 2015

The latest house price index is out in Jersey and it shows that the average price of homes in the island has fallen slightly from the beginning of this year, but is up on the same period in 2014

The mean price of a 3-bedroom house was £503,000 in the period April to June, which was £21,000 lower than the previous quarter but the same as the 2014 average. It’s this price fluctuation that’s prompted a leading mortgage lender in the island to urge people not to read too much into the price dip.

Managing Director of Skipton International, Jim Coupe said, “We always say don’t take a quarter in isolation but the real stand out figure to me was the turnover. It’s the highest level of activity since 2008 and there were only six bulletins and usually when you get a high turnover it’s because there have been seven, so that demonstrates there is a healthy market out there.”

A total of 328 properties were included in the index with the most popular house home a 3-bed house. The index overall has fallen just 1% from the beginning of the year, but is 4% higher than the same period last year.

Jim Coupe said a single quarter’s movement shouldn’t be given too much weight, “There is always the danger of some statistical variance in price because in an island the size of Jersey you only have a small sample. The really encouraging point is that houses are selling and more people are realising their aspirations of becoming home owners or moving up the housing ladder.”

Demand at the lower end of the housing market means the mean price of a one-bedroom flat was £216,000, around £15,000 higher than the start of the year and around £6,000 higher than the annual average in 2014.

The mix-adjusted average price of a home in Jersey is £424,000 compared to the UK at £274,000 and Guernsey at £437,000. Prices in the island are returning to the levels seen before the recession, although the overall average price has yet to reach the peaks seen in 2009.