Estate agents are reporting that they have been inundated with inquiries from Islanders looking to move house since restrictions were lifted in June.
And Peter Seymour, managing director of The Mortgage Shop, said that his business had seen the highest-ever number of daily requests for home financing since the Island emerged from lockdown.
‘We were getting around 25 inquiries per day from people asking us to sort a mortgage out for them, which is unprecedented,’ he said.
‘We have never seen that level in 30 years of trading. What has been interesting is that people have been coming to us having already arranged a sale and then asking us for a mortgage, which is a reversal of the usual situation.
‘It seems to be quite similar to the period we usually get at new year, when people may have spent a lot of time locked up with their families or partners and decide they want to move away or divorce and they sell the home.’
Mr Seymour said the high-end market of homes priced between £1.5 million and £1.8 million seemed to be particularly busy and the high level of transactions demonstrated confidence in Jersey’s economy.
‘People say that we need to have more industries than just finance but this crisis has shown just how important having a very robust finance industry, which has weathered Covid-19 well, is to Jersey,’ he said.
‘People must be confident in the future of Jersey’s economy, if they are making the decision to make these levels of investment.’
Mrs Sokrati, a director at Thompsons Estates, said that ‘pent-up demand’ as people were less able to access the housing market during lockdown was one factor, but the level of activity was still much higher than expected.
‘We think it’s down to number of things. We haven’t seen a large number of redundancies or job losses over the summer, so people are confident in their future,’ she said.
‘And people haven’t been travelling or going away on holiday due to the lockdown, so were spending less generally and have more disposable income.
‘Rather than saving the money they are tending to spend it, so they are thinking that they want to improve their property or buy a better car – the garages have been really busy too. There has been the interest rate cut too.
‘Also, people have had to spend a lot of time at home during the pandemic. They are thinking that they might need to do so again if there is another lockdown, so they are looking for a better property in case that happens.
‘They are looking for things like a bigger garden, more family space or home office.’
Harry Trower, a director a Broadlands, said that the rise in house prices over the past few years had made it a good time for many people to sell.
‘The market has been absolutely bananas recently, especially since we came out of lockdown. It hasn’t stopped since,’ he said.
‘And this is the case across the market, from first-time buyers and people buying a one-bedroom flat right up to high-end properties.’
He added: ‘If you look at the property prices over the last few years, if you bought a house in 2015 for £450,000 it could be worth £600,000 now.
‘So maybe people are seeing the money they can get and are thinking that they could use that to get somewhere better.’
Latest average home prices in the Island, according to Statistics Jersey
One-bed flat: £268,000
Two-bed flat: £439,000
Two-bed house: £537,000
Three-bed house: £634,000
Four-bed house: £1,067,000
