The Island?s real estate market remained hot throughout the first half of 2005 with projections showing a total of 171 property transfers during the period at an overall average price of $1.18 million.

Families upgrading motivated many of the real estate sales with multiple linked transactions being the norm, according to Susan Thompson, agency manager at Coldwell Banker Bermuda Realty.

She compiled the 2005 half-year statistics from Government public records which often run about three months behind the actual close dates. The figures will adjust in the months to come.

During the same period in 2004, 283 properties exchanged with the average price at $885,000 per transaction.

Ms Thompson said that buyers looking for vacant land encountered stiff competition during the first half of 2005 with only 13 lots selling according to current public records. Prices for residential land ranged from a low of $170,000 for a 0.11 acre lot in Warwick to a high of $1.8 million for a lot of just over one acre in Pembroke.

During the first six months of 2005, realtors conveyed 68 condominiums at an average sale price of $790,000. The lowest-priced condo, a one-bedroom property in Sandys, sold for $325,000 while a unit at The Wharf demanded the highest price of $1.95 million.

Forty-one single-family houses sold during the period at an average price of $1.45 million. However, two of those properties sold for under $300,000 ? one was a prefab house in Pembroke at $285,000 and the other was a partial construction on a very small lot in Warwick which sold for $100,000. At the other end of the scale, two properties in Southampton, one in Pembroke and two in Tucker?s Town each sold for more than $3 million.

Those sales in Tucker?s Town made St. George?s the highest priced parish to buy a home in the first half of 2005 with the average price of a property at $3.39 million. Paget recorded the lowest prices for property at an average $830,000. In the same period last year, Pembroke was the wealthiest parish with average selling price of $1.52 million. Devonshire was the most affordable with an average price of $730,000.

Commercial building sales have shown steady volumes in the first six months of 2005 compared with the same period in 2004 according to Ms Thompson who said that there were half a dozen transactions in this area. The average price of commercial buildings has, however, more than doubled to $2.85 million from $1.26 million in the same period a year ago. The last 12 months of commercial building sales figures were impacted by some very substantial sales with the largest in excess of $6 million in the second half of 2004. As a result, the average sales price rose to $3.77 million for a total of 19 transactions over the last 12 months, she said. While there were nearly half a dozen sales of buildings with a residential component or in residential areas in the first half of 2004 with an average price of $1.28 million, there were none in the first half of 2005. Ms Thompson said that sales of commercial land have also been infrequent at best in the last six months, numbering in the low single digits for the first half-year of 2005, similar to the level of activity for the same period in 2004.

?It is clear there is little undeveloped commercial land which is not in use by the current owners,? she said, adding that it is important to bear in mind that prices are a direct reflection of supply and demand with statistics providing only a snapshot of a period in time.

?With land being a rare commodity in Bermuda and the average price of a 0.25 acre lot going for $650,000 plus building cost of a high quality single family home at approximately $275+ per square foot, it is understandable how that average house would easily be in excess of $1 million,? she said.

While it is premature to make an informed decision on the long-term effects of Government?s new policy amendments on Acquisition of Property by Non Bermudians and the increase in Rent Control ARV, Ms Thompson said that findings to date are interesting.

Seven properties with an ARV over $126,000 have transferred ownership at an average price of $5 million in the first half of the year. Effective June 20, that threshold to transfer ownership to non-Bermudians increased to $153,000 for houses and $32,400 for condominiums. Last year for the same period, ten properties transferred with the average price of $3.05 million.

Contrarily, 71 properties under rent control (with an ARV of $24,600 or lower) sold in the first six months of 2005, while 92 sold in 2004.