Average cost of three-bedroom home now more than £600,000

Average cost of three-bedroom home now more than £600,000

The latest House Price Index produced by Statistics Jersey revealed that the average price for a three-bedroom house in the first quarter of the year was £605,000, compared to just below £500,000 in 2014.

The average cost for all types of home was £499,000, which was a 2% rise compared to a year ago but the market was cooler than the previous quarter, which saw a 7% increase in prices – the largest annual rise in a decade.

There was also a drop in the rate at which private rental prices increased over the year, which was 4%, compared to 9% in the last report.

But the percentage increase in rents still outstripped the latest rate of inflation in Jersey, which was 3.6%, as well as the latest recorded annual average increase in Islanders’ wages, which was 3.5%.

Malcolm Ferey, chief executive of Citizens Advice Jersey, welcomed cooling down of the market but said he was concerned that the cost of a home was still edging ‘further and further’ out of the reach of the average Islander.

He added that he felt demand for housing was growing, in particular at the lower end of the market, and was increasingly not being met by the supply of homes in the Island.

‘After speaking to estate agents, what I am told is that the days of making a lower offer for a house and getting that price seem to be over,’ he said.

‘Nowadays people always seem to get the asking price for a house and that is because of increased demand.’ He added: ‘While the latest figures might be a step in the right direction with the market cooling, in the wider context prices have been going up and and up in the long term.

‘In the previous six to nine months this was particularly the case. Also, this is the first time that the cost of a three-bedroom home has exceeded the £600,000 mark.’

He added that he felt that Jersey’s housing shortage would be worsened by decisions such as last month’s rejection by the States of Senator Kristina Moore’s proposition to revive the rejected Ville de Manoir affordable-housing scheme in St Peter.

The scheme would have provided 65 three-bedroom family homes at a 25% discount on an area of farmland neighbouring St Peter’s Village.

The £499,000 average cost of a home in Jersey exceeded the average cost of a home in all UK regions, including London, where it was £467,000 during the last quarter.

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