Jason Morgan (pictured), Partner at Carey Olsen and Head of its Property Group in Guernsey, comments on sales activity in the Guernsey housing market so far this year
According to the latest conveyancing statistics compiled by Unusualities of Guernsey, an independent compiler of local conveyancing statistics, sales so far in 2019 are on course to top last year's levels.
For the nine months to the end of September 2019, 675 Local Market houses and flats were sold, compared with 598 for the same period last year.
Of those 675 transactions, the median price (realty only) for the 542 houses sold is £458,250, up from £444,600 in the same period last year. The median price (realty only) of the 112 Local Market flats is £243,750, which also represents an increase on £236,031 recorded in the first nine months of 2018.*
Morgan commented: "If Local Market sales continue along their current trajectory, it will represent the fourth successive year of increased activity since 2015, when there were less than 600 transactions in total.
"At the same time, it is possible that this year's total will surpass that of 2011 which, with 893 Local Market transactions, was the most buoyant year since before the financial crisis.
"This level of activity shows a confidence in the housing market locally and is certainly consistent with the number of new instructions our conveyancing team has been receiving."
Guernsey Open Market
For the Guernsey Open Market, the 52 transactions recorded by Unusualities of Guernsey in the first nine months of 2019 is three more than during the same period last year.
Of those sales, the median price (realty only) of the 47 Open Market houses sold this year is £877,500, down from £1,072,500 for the same period last year. The five Open Market flats sold so far this year have a median price (realty only) of £1,023,750.*
Morgan added: "Although the increase in activity and transaction value on the Local Market for the year to date has not been replicated on the Open Market, our expectation is that such disparity is likely to be short-lived.
"Our sense of the situation, supported by the advice we are receiving from estate agents, is that interest levels in the Open Market remain high.
"With the inevitable fallout in the UK that will follow whatever the outcome of Brexit may be later this month, the prospect of a flourish on the Open Market to finish the year is becoming increasingly likely."
* None of the total sales numbers quoted include inter-family or inter-company sales, transactions which are typically completed for a nominal consideration.