Private Sector Rental Index (FOI)

Request

In the quarterly House Price Index document there is a section towards the end that shows the Private Sector . The opening paragraph states:

"Statistics Jersey published a rental index from 2007 until 2012 using prices recorded by the Population Office. The index could not be produced for more than two years (from Q4 2012 to Q2 2015) following a change in law that meant the Population Office no longer recorded this data. Since June 2015 Statistics Jersey have produced the index using advertised rental prices collected from a variety of both internet and classified sources."

A

The data shows the rental index change through charts and graphs, but unlike the larger house price report, doesn't give indication to actual monthly / yearly rental costs for different size properties. As this cost data must be held for the index to be calculated, please provide the data that has been used to formulate the index.

B

Please also provide the historical prices where data has been collected such as from 2002 to 2020 (omitting 2012 to 2015 when data wasn't collected).

C

If there is historic data prior to 2002, please provide rental prices for all earlier years collected.

Yearly average monthly private sector rental cost between 2002 and 2020 for,

• single room in shared property

• one bed apartment

• two bed apartment / house

• three bed apartment / house

• four bed apartment / house

As stated, in the document above, "Statistics Jersey have produced the index using advertised rental prices collected from a variety of both internet and classified sources". Please provide the price data used.

Response

A to C

Please see attached spreadsheet for average rental prices used in the construction of the Private Sector Rental Index. The data is divided into two sheets, the first reflecting the period 2002 to 2012 and the second reflecting the period 2015 to 2020.

Rental Index Data 

The two different periods represent two different methodologies and data sources, with the index itself being constructed using a chain linked approach, where historic advertisement data was also collected in order to link the two periods together.

The current (2015 to 2020) methodology is an average of the prices that are advertised in a given month for each property type and size. The quantity and quality of properties of each type and size that are advertised for rental each month will vary. Also, it is likely that the actual rental prices paid differ from these advertised prices. Therefore we do not recommend that the specific price level data is used for the purpose of assessing actual rental costs on the Island. The advertised prices are used by Statistics Jersey to provide a measure of change in rental prices, which is reflected in the index.

More detail for each period is given below:

2002 to 2012

The data shown is the winsorised arithmetic mean of the weekly rental data recorded for that category of property. The principal data source for the Jersey Private Sector Rental Index during this period was the States of Jersey Population Office. Specifically, data was recorded for each rental consent granted by this office in the reference period.

The average rental price of dwellings was calculated by weighting together the average rents for each of the following categories: bedsits, One, two, three and four bedroom flats and one, two, three and four bedroom houses (“houses” includes houses and bungalows).

2015 to 2020

The data shown is the geometric mean of the monthly rental data recorded for that category of property. The principal data sources for the Jersey Private Sector Rental Index during this period are advertisements that are collected primarily from online sources, which include rental advertisements from estate / letting agents, as well as advertisements from private individuals.

The average rental price of dwellings was calculated by weighting together the average rents for each of the following categories: Bedsits + one Bed Flats (combined), two Bed Flats, two, three and four bedroom houses, each separated into qualified (Entitled and Licenced) and non-qualified (Registered) accommodation.