Fair comparison difficult due to way market has changed
In this week's view of the property scene, estate agent Trevor Cooper has been looking back as far as 50 years ago to look at prices then and how they compare with those in the current market and wonders whether people in 50 years' time will view today's prices as absurdly low...
In this week's view of the property scene, estate agent Trevor Cooper has been looking back as far as 50 years ago to look at prices then and how they compare with those in the current market and wonders whether people in 50 years' time will view today's prices as absurdly low...
A DOZEN or more house sales will be completed in court today, but how will they be viewed in 10, 25 and 50 years' time?
Will today's prices seem absurdly low to house buyers of the future?
It is interesting to look back that far and see how prices have increased over time.
A beautifully presented terraced house in Coronation Road near Cambridge Park was sold in the middle of September 2002 for a shade under £250,000.
Also sold on the same day, but for £465,000, was a barn conversion at L'Ancresse that is currently on the market for £800,000, although much improved during that time.
Sales of commercial properties are also registered and, on 10 September 2002, the building that includes Nautilus in High Street and, somewhat puzzlingly, Manzur hairdressers and the charity bookshop in Commercial Arcade sold for £760,000.
Needless to say, this was for the building alone and not connected to those fine businesses.
This random search of old records at the Greffe also uncovered the registration 10 years ago yesterday of a 99-year lease of land belonging to the Cure of the Parish of St Martin's, upon which the Professor Shaw Community Centre has been built, alongside the rectory.
It is vastly different from the two green, wooden buildings it replaced that housed the church hall and the St Martin's air rifle club.
Looking back 25 years to 10 September 1987 shows that one of a pair of two-storey cottages at Havilland Road, near Havilland Vale, changed hands for £52,000, whilst one of the 12 modern houses at Les Douze Maisons in Collings Road was sold for a little over £60,000.
A virtually brand new cottage-style bungalow on La Petite Mare de Lis Clos, only a stroll away from Vazon, sold for £85,000.
Another unusual entry recorded on the same day was the sale of
L'Fief d'Anneville, first granted by Henry III to Sir William de Cheny in 1248.
The fief was sold by the late Cyril Northcote Parkinson for £40,500 at the time when the seigneur claimed 2% congé on the sale price of any property within his fief.
The first States resolution to abolish congé, coincidentally, was passed 10 years ago this month.
Mr Parkinson was a celebrity Guernsey resident famed for coining Parkinson's Law.
He also wrote 60 books, including a series of historical naval adventures featuring the fictional hero, Richard Delancey.
Now moving back 50 years to 11 September 1962 and a terraced cottage in New Paris Road was sold for £2,500, and for an extra £30,000 Creasey's bought 25, High Street from the States Electricity Board.
Three floors of that building used to be their wonderful toy shop and now houses designer name menswear.
Building plots were more readily available then and a site in Rue Sauvage, between Capelles and L'Islet, measuring 70ft x 40ft sold for £250, while a slightly larger plot near Grande Rue, St Martin's sold for twice that amount.
Another altogether more intriguing building site also changed hands 50 years ago today.
A large area of land at the top of Forest Lane, near the top of Smith Street in Town, was donated to the trustees of the First Church of Christ, Scientist, Guernsey, with the intention written into the conveyance that the trustees, 'will hold the premises and any buildings erected thereon for the general purpose of the First Church of Christ, Scientist, Guernsey, to be used for the religious purposes so as to promote the cause of Christian Science'.
Donations aside, all things are relative and houses have never been cheap.
Research shows that the UK average wage has not risen as fast as house prices, unless you're a professional footballer, of course.
According to the London Evening Standard, footballers' wages have risen 1,314% faster than the UK average over last 50 years.
But the average wage and house price statistics do not take into account the uncommonly low interest rates in recent times.
The bank base rate back in 1987 was 12%, which would double and even quadruple repayments of some present mortgages.
Neither is the increased loan-to-value ratio adopted by some mortgage providers taken into consideration, nor is the increasing trend of current homebuyers to spend a higher proportion of their disposable income on the house of their dreams.
The level of demand also influences property prices, as does availability.
Building plots, for example, are proportionately more expensive now due to them being as rare as hen's teeth.
But so is a 1962 Ford Cortina and one of those cost £591 back then.
