Property market sees highest price rise in over a decade

The local market has experienced the largest annual rise in property prices since 2008, as revealed in the latest Residential Property Prices Bulletin released today. The average home in the Bailiwick will now cost £493,174 with Skipton International foreseeing that demand will remain strong into the year for new homes.

345 Local Market transactions took place in the last quarter of 2020, 68 more than the prior quarter and 154 more than this time the previous year. The year also saw the highest number of Open Market transactions take place since 2006, 92 in total with 39 of these having come in what was a busy last quarter of the year.

Whilst it is important not to view any quarter in isolation, Skipton believes that high levels of property purchases taking place last year coupled with steady demand, show a clear sustained trend for price rises.

Roger Hughes, Business Development Manager of Skipton International, said: “Even with reduced activity during lockdown, the 2020 total number of property purchases bonds increased by 8% in comparison to 2019. Lockdown caused many people to reassess their requirements from a home – looking for more outdoor areas and office space, a trend which I think we will see continue for some time. This activity not only demonstrates the stability of the local property market but more generally the local economy.

“While we are still very much in the midst of the pandemic there are signs of things returning to normality with Skipton now having adopted its pre-Covid affordability criteria for lending once more and reintroducing our 100% LTV Next Generation mortgages.”

Such rises as seen in the report are not sustainable over the long term and Skipton would like to see these return to 1-2% above RPI to keep property at an affordable level.

Skipton International are committed to helping as many islanders as possible own their own homes and are currently offering fee-free mortgages for a limited period of time. As one of the Channel Islands leading lenders they help over 200 first time buyers into homes every year.