Skipton International has said it is optimistic about the Guernsey property market, following the publication of official figures today.
The Residential Property Prices Bulletin for the second quarter of 2018, published by the States’ Data and Analysis Team, offers a mixed picture but there are positive signs of recovery, it said.
Skipton Managing Director Jim Coupe commented: “These quarterly figures should never be taken in isolation; house prices were up on the previous quarter but lower than at the same point last year. Similarly, transactions were up on Q1 but lower than Q2 in 2017.
“However, based on some of the data we’ve been seeing, we expect the next quarter to improve. There were 69 property purchase bonds in July compared with 41 in June. So, while the year-to-date property purchase bonds were down in June on the prior year (273 v 283), this had reversed by the end of July (342 v 335), where 2017 was the best year for purchase bonds since 2012.
“One interesting statistic to note is that the average time for houses and bungalows to complete from first being advertised has dropped by about a third in a year. The reduction is most marketed in the £400,000-£499,000 range, which has more than halved from over 400 days to less than 200.”
• To view the Skipton House Price Index click here