- Housing market provides ‘best opportunity in ten years’ for new home owners
- Variety of one-bed flat, falling prices and low interest rates combine to provide lots of choice
- Buyers at the lower end of the market seeing price drops of up to £10,000 on one-bed flats compared to last year
IT is the best time in a decade for first-time buyers to get onto the property ladder, two of the Island’s most senior estate agents have said.
John Quemard, the joint president of the Jersey Estate Agents’ Association, and John Crespel, of Crespel Properties, said that young buyers were finding it easier because of a combination of increased range in the one-bedroom flat market, falling prices and low interest rates.
Their comments follow yesterday’s release of the quarterly house price index, which showed that the price of one- and two-bedroom flats in the first three months of 2015 had fallen from the average across the whole of last year.
The statistics showed that one-bedroom flats dropped by £10,000 compared to the previous calendar year, while two-bedroom flats dropped by £6,000 from the same period.
And in comparison to the last quarter of 2014, one-bedroom flats were down by £16,000, whereas two-bedroom flats decreased by £6,000.
Meanwhile, the average price of one-, two- and three-bedroom houses were essentially unchanged compared to the last quarter of 2014. Mr Quemard said: ‘It’s great for first-time buyers, in as much as there’s a lot more choice – we are seeing more one-bedroom flats in the £140,000–£200,000 range, but there are also some for £240,000.
‘Because of the extra choice, people now are having the option to save tens of thousands on what they would have spent previously, and that makes a big difference.’
He added: ‘The prices that are being offered are not that much different from those that we saw ten years ago and there are lenders that are offering rates as low as 1.9%. It does look like the best time in ten years for potential first-time buyers, but they must be prepared to save for a deposit and buy in a range they can afford.’
Mr Crespel was similarly buoyant about first-time-buyer prospects.
‘It is certainly a very good time to get a foot on the ladder – probably the best time in ten years,’ he said.
‘With a lot of new building developments, there’s very good value out there at the lower end of the market – in the one-bedroom flat bracket, the statistics show that there’s good choice at £10,000 less than before.’
- One-bedroom flat: £201,000
- Two-bedroom flat: £335,000
- Two-bedroom house: £438,000
- Three-bedroom house: £524,000
- Four-bedroom house: £707,000
