THE average price of a house rose to more than £288,000 at the end of last year. An increase of £20,000 in the final quarter of the year was the first significant rise in average local market prices for two years.

The news will be a blow to States members campaigning for this month’s general election.

Progress the House believed it had made on tackling the housing problem was not reflected in the latest figures.

The details from the States Economic and Statistics Unit showed that the average price of a local home had risen by nearly £100,000 – or more than 50% – over the life of the States, despite a pledge from members to tackle house prices as an immediate priority four years ago.

At the time of the last election the average price of a local market house was £189,292.

The rise over the whole of last year was 9.5%.

Swoffers managing director Matthew Henry said that the December figure may have been a distortion of a market which had been fairly static for the preceding 18 months.

‘In that period quite a lot of local market houses went through above £500,000. It may very well be that people decided that they wanted to be in by Christmas.’

Mr Henry said that the property market was as busy as ever.

‘The first three months of the year have started well. There has been a great deal more property sold than you would see in an average month.’

Completions through the Greffe last month were understood to total more than 100 worth a combined £28m.

‘There’s normally 60-80 properties go through in a month,’ said Mr Henry. ‘I’m not saying it’s a record but it’s substantial. We are very busy.’

He said that the main change over the life of this States was a levelling out of the market – particularly in the last couple of years – and an increase in the supply of flats and first-time buyer properties.

‘There is more choice and people don’t need to plump for the first house they see – there is more negotiating and that is reflected in the figures.’

Kelvin Seeds, local market director at Goldridge Estate Agents, said that prices were steady.

‘There’s no clear indication of prices going up and at the developer end possibly there’s a slight percentage down,’ he said.

The average house price in the UK was revealed recently as £151,467, with prices rising by 18.5% a year.

It was the first time they had topped £150,000 and raised fears of the country being in the grip of an unsustainable speculative housing boom.

The value of a typical home rose by 2.2% or £3,300 in March.

House prices appear to be rising faster than in Guernsey. Only two years ago the UK broke through the £100,000 barrier and prices had doubled in five years.