Realtors are looking forward with “cautious optimism” to the New Year after signs the recession-driven slump in sales has bottomed out.

Buddy Rego, of Rego Sotheby’s, said that changes in the law governing home purchases by overseas buyers and permanent resident certificate holders could help boost sales in 2014.

He added that 2013 had seen the lowest rate of property sales to non-Bermudians “in decades”.

But Mr Rego said: “Hopefully, the policies that the Government has put in place will start to become apparent and have more effect than they did in 2013.

“I’m hopeful that whatever time lag is necessary has come and gone and that we would see an interest from overseas and in permanent residence.

“We had quite onerous taxes associated with buying property in Bermuda, so hopefully there is a prescribed time lag between Bermuda being open for business and that message reaching the rest of the world.”

Mr Rego added: “The volume of transactions that have declined year on year over the last six years has flattened out. I expect them to be fairly flat for 2013 and similar to 2012 numbers.

“If the volume of the market is the same, that is at least an encouraging sign.

“If flat is the new up, I’ll take it for the time being.”

Mr Rego said, however, that the permanent resident certificate holder market had seen improvements in 2013.

But he added: “That’s still the upper end of the market and the lower end of the Bermudian market continues to struggle.”

Mr Rego said: ”In 2014, I’d like to see the confidence back in the market and Bermudians and residents of Bermuda taking advantage of what has been a fairly depressed market year over year and hopefully being given the opportunity as so many people have been hoping to participate in the market. That includes empty nesters and first time buyers.”

He added that fewer people on the Island meant fewer houses and apartments being rented, while getting a mortgage and affording repayments were still problems for Bermudians.

Mr Rego said the property market on the Island was “a significant indicator of how the rest of the economy is doing”.

And he added: “I suspect we still need some economic change for those who would ordinarily be entrants to the market to allow them to do so.”

Kendra Mello, general manager of Coldwell Banker, said the firm had seen an increase in enquiries from potential non-Bermudians buyers over this year.

And she added: “There is some potential there for improvement in the market.”

Ms Mello said: “All economies work on a cycle and the real question is where we are on that economic cycle. We’re cautiously optimistic — we’ve seen an increase across the market in terms of the number of contracts.”

She added that the residential and commercial rental sectors were key indicators of performance.

But she said: “Unfortunately, we’ve not seen significant changes in these sectors.”

Mr Mello added: “But we are seeing some level of improvement in consumer confidence and the number of contracts, so it’s a bit of a mixed message.”

She said: “We would hope to see the economy getting better for everyone because that increases disposable income people have to spend on property and other things and I would hope to see people coming back to Bermuda because that increases the disposable income Bermudians have.”

But Ms Mello added that the Hamilton city centre rental market — although there had been decreases in values and rental values — still showed a healthy demand.

Karin Sinclair, of Sinclair Realty, which specialises in the upper end of the market, said the middle to upper tier — properties valued at between $5 million and $15 million — had performed “quite well”, particularly after changes to policy to make it easier for non-Bermudians to buy property.

She added: “It’s been a healthy, absolutely average year in terms of completed non-Bermudian sales of houses and estates and there are further strong contracts on the table.”

Ms Mello echoed views that Government needed to continue to help boost the economy, which she said would lead to improved confidence in the domestic market.

And she added: “The high end of the Bermudian market, particularly the $3 million-$6 million range, is just beginning to see more positivity. It’s an interesting phenomenon — at the moment, international purchasers appear to believe in Bermuda more than Bermudians do themselves.”