Confidence building in housing market, say 'cautious' agents

CAUTIOUS optimism surrounds Guernsey's housing market ahead of 2010, according to estate agents.

After a challenging two years, Cooper Brouard director Trevor Cooper (pictured) said he believed there was a confidence returning to the market while Martel Maides associate director Caroline Nickolls believed price rises in the region of four to five per cent could be in evidence by next Christmas.

Their comments come as the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors, in its official forecast for house prices and demand in the UK for the coming year, predicts that while more homes will be bought and sold in 2010 than this year, prices would increase by no more than one to two per cent.

Locally, it was revealed at the start of November that the average cost of a local market residential property was £330,534 at the end of September.

'It is hard to identify any specific trigger that is likely to kick-start rising prices in the local market early in 2010,' said Ms Nickolls.

'However, as consumer confidence in general terms returns later in the year, we expect to see price rises of around four to five per cent by next Christmas.'