First fall for 10 years seen in house price trend

FOR the first time in nearly 10 years, the long-term trend in house prices is falling.

Policy Council figures released yesterday show that the average house price over four quarters is now down 2.3%.

That puts the average cost of a local market residential property at £330,534 - 0.5% down from June this year.

The four-quarter figure smoothes out seasonal variations in prices.

However, Cooper Brouard estate agents director Trevor Cooper (pictured) was sceptical of the statistics because they were gleaned from a small number of sales.

'It's not a true reflection of the property market - while there have been fewer sales, we've found that prices have remained stable.'

He said the way the figures were calculated could skew the results, with the possibility of a high or low priced property throwing them out.

'You could just have one sale that is artificially high or low and there is a limited number of sales, unlike on the mainland.'

Mr Cooper said the 2.3% drop in the four-quarter moving average was not a huge amount and in the long term estate agents were seeing more confidence in the market.