/ Author: SPF

It was a positive end to 2017 according to the panel who appeared in Decembers radio appearance including MD Pierre Blampied.

Steve Williams from Guernsey Housing Association reported that the properties in St Martins will be completed over the next 6-8 weeks and that many tenants are moving in before Christmas which is great news. They are also making progress with the properties in Castel with 50% of these finished with tenants in. KMPG’s report suggested 40 per annum which is what the Guernsey Housing Association are aiming for and achieving.

Matt Brouard from Cooper Brouard said that December has been a fantastic month with more sales going through towards the end of this week so the stats are encouraging. They have seen a 20% increase on local market house and flat sales which means the stats are back as they were in 2012. They are lacking a steady flow of first time buyers however. He felt that when property prices start to rise again which they will at some point and in turn this will create more of a demand for this target market and buyers would need to move more quickly.

Pierre was able to continue with the positivity of the interview by mentioning about Barclays being effectively a new lender in the market. The products are very competitive and it is useful to have another player in the market. He added that the States are due to debate KMPG’s report in early 2018 and hopefully the discussion will cover assisting first time buyers.

To close the discussion Pierre said his hopes for 2018 would be to see a 95% loan to value product launched, along with two new lenders entering the market by the end of 2018.

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