The mix adjusted average purchase price of a Local Market property sold during the three-month period from July-September was £629,297, a 5.1% increase on Q2 and a jump of 13.5% from Q3 of 2021.

However, it appears that more than two years of frenzied activity may be catching up with the market, as 51 fewer homes changed hands than in the equivalent quarter of 2021.

The property market certainly saw a boom as we came out of the pandemic as trading was well above ‘normal’ levels in volume, valuations and sales prices. During Q3 we undoubtedly saw the market soften and movement return to more normal levels. This certainly does not mean that the market is stagnant, and both the sales and rental teams at Livingroom have continued to be busy with transactions.

234 Local Market transactions were completed in Q3, taking the total number of sales for the year so far to 669.

All of this data is from the period before the UK Government’s so-called ‘fiscal event’ of 23 September – a budget-type announcement which caused financial markets to panic and resulted in a small decrease in house prices in October, according to Halifax.

Despite feeling like an idyllic and independent sanctuary a lot of the time, Guernsey is not immune from external shocks or market influences. The impact of that ‘fiscal event’ is yet to be seen (and will be revealed in Q4’s data) but we can see in the increased mortgage rates seen across the island that Guernsey often sees the impact of events elsewhere.

That said, banks and mortgage brokers are still lending, and customers are still coming to us in a position to purchase with fixed rate and variable mortgages.

We caught up with Conor Burke of Oracle last month about how changing interest rates are affecting the market.

Elsewhere in the bulletin, the rising prices led to there being 95 transactions in the £600,000-£999,000 bracket, reflecting that different property types now edge over that £600,000 mark.

That figure of 95 represented 41% of all transactions, the same as in Q2 and a continuation of pattern that has seen that percentage increase consistently since Q3 of 2020 – when the bracket accounted for 17% of sales.

On the Open Market, the median realty purchase price was £1,576,345 and there were 23 transactions.

Livingroom’s Guernsey property experts had another busy quarter in Q3 as demand remains high, as demonstrated by the rising prices. Once again, demand is outstripping supply, which is certainly contributing to the steadily increasing average price.

With Christmas looming the market will invariably slow down a little more, it will be interesting to see how prices and movements will fare in 2023 if the projection of lending rates increasing comes to fruition.

As we reach the end of the year, our team is still busy taking on new listing and matching buyers with property. Buying a house is rarely a quick-and-easy task – it requires a healthy dose of patience and perspective – which is why our team are here to guide vendors and buyers at every step of the process.

www.livingroomproperty.com

Guernsey property prices continue to rise in Q3 2022

The States of Guernsey has released its property bulletin for Q3 of 2022 and the data shows continued price increases across the market.

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