A single real estate company in Bermuda has sold or rented $30 million worth of homes during the first three months of the year, with the average price of a house leaping to $1.3 million.

According to William Madeiros, vice president of Rego Realtors, sales have been very brisk for January, February and March, with April expected to come in as a bumper sales month.

During the first quarter of 2004, the company sold a total of 22 properties with an average price of $1.3 million and the majority of the properties that were bought through Rego were in the $1 million to $1.2 million price range, the company said.

"We are off to a really powerful start to the year," said Mr. Madeiros. "While we are still tabulating the results from April, that looks like an exceptionally strong month."

He said, however, that business in real estate was unpredictable could swing like a pendulum from good to bad very quickly depending on the housing stock and what was sold in a given month.

Mr. Madeiros said that he saw no cooling off of the housing boom in Bermuda, with demand still outstripping supply.

He said that with banks offering more and more competitive prices for mortgages and loans, interest was peaking for a large section of the population looking to buy for the first time or move up a rung on the property ladder.

"Property is still seen as a good investment in Bermuda," he said. "And while people have a right to be concerned about borrowing so much money ? it is a big-ticket item ? historically property is a good investment in Bermuda."

And he attributed the interest in buying a piece of the rock to the "feel good" factor about Bermuda, with few concerns about the financial stability of the Island and the continued growth of international business here.

Mr. Madeiros said that it was still a good time to buy property in Bermuda, with prices still going up steadily and giving good returns.

He urged people to take advantage of the free information seminars and offers from the banks and to get pre-approval for mortgages so they could act quickly if they saw something in their price range.

"Information is power and I think there cannot be anything better than an informed consumer," he said, adding that many of the seminars run recently meant that many who thought they could not afford their own home were now looking at condo living as a way into the housing market.

"My advice is to get a foot on the rung of the ladder," said Mr. Madeiros. "Then you have somewhere that is your own home and in maybe two or three years, when the payments do not seem so big, in paying off some of the mortgage. Then in maybe five or ten years, you can look at moving up to a bigger place."

He said that while many Bermudians wanted the typical Bermuda home with a white picket fence and a small dog running around a manicured lawn, this was simply not a realistic first home for many people.

"We would all love to have a three bed, three bath waterfront property with its own dock," he said. "But to be quite honest very few people have ever been able to afford these kinds of homes. Maybe having that dream house in our mind is what drives the economy, when we want what we cannot afford."

Mr. Madeiros said that buying a nice home in Bermuda was possible, and everyone had to start somewhere and condos, while resisted by many would-be home owners, were sometimes the logical place to start.