Published on Tue Aug 02 07:00:00 BST 2011
THE property market is ‘holding up incredibly well’ and houses will sell if they are priced correctly and are well presented.
That’s the verdict of Manxmove managing director Graham Wilson in the company’s July property market report.
The company has negotiated nine sales since June 18, and since its launch in April it has listed nearly 90 properties and found eight tenants.
The survey was completed before the UK’s latest ‘renegotiation’ of the VAT-sharing agreement.
Mr Wilson said: ‘In terms of our property market, whilst it remains slightly fickle and still heavily stacked in the buyer’s favour, the good news is that our market is holding up incredibly well compared to elsewhere and properties are still selling if they are priced correctly and well presented.
‘Despite the dramatic drop in property prices elsewhere, the Isle of Man is fortunate enough to have had no measurable drop in property values, although there have been no increases either over the last 12 months.’
He said the island was in a much better position than in the UK: ‘Our economy is more stable, mortgages are still obtainable here, we have virtually full employment, no negative equity problems or forced sales and most home owners have built up huge equity in their homes which has not been eroded by falling house prices.’ Mr Wilson said the residential sales market was ‘very competitive due to the large number of sellers chasing comparatively fewer buyers’.
And he said the rental market was ‘extremely buoyant, with a distinct lack of houses and apartments to let in or around Douglas between about £650 and £1,200 per calendar month’.