Brexit house prices: What does Article 50 mean for YOUR house price

Article 50 has today been triggered but where does that leave the millions of British homeowners worried about the value of their property? 

Or those who don’t own a house looking to join the property ladder post-Brexit? 

British Building Society Nationwide believes house prices will continue to rise in the face of Brexit – albeit slowly.

Robert Gardner, Nationwide’s chief economist, spoke about the growth in his housing market outlook for 2017.

He said: “Looking forward, house price prospects will depend crucially on developments in the wider economy, around which there is a larger degree of uncertainty than usual. 

“Like most forecasters, including the Bank of England, we expect the UK economy to slow modestly next year, which is likely to result in less robust labour market conditions and modestly slower house price growth.

“But we continue to think a small gain (around 2%) is more likely than a decline over 2017 as a whole, since low interest rates are expected to help underpin demand while a shortage of homes on the market will continue to provide support for house prices.”

Echoing this, property market research firm Hometrack has also predicted house price growth – this time by an average of 4 per cent in 2017. 

While this figure is down from 7.7 per cent the previous year it is still growth. 

Although these two financial giants are remaining positive, British internet entrepreneur Alex Chesterman believes the EU referendum has put the property industry on shaky ground. 

The founder of property website Zoopla – who backed law firm Mishcon de Reya in a legal challenge to the Brexit vote – said: “The Brexit vote has had an impact and that is not surprising given the resulting uncertainty.

“We saw property sales volumes fall quite significantly in the second half of last year, compared to the period before the vote.

“Buying a home is one of the biggest and longest term decisions that people make so they tend to hold off making such important decisions in times of heightened uncertainty.

“2017 is unlikely to see any material improvement in sentiment until we have clarity around what Brexit actually means.”

Agreeing with Chesterman’s sentiment, Lucian Cook, head of residential research at Savills, said: “The prospect of weaker economic growth and greater pressure on household finances is expected to remove any significant upward pressure on house prices over 2017 and 2018.”

In simple terms – Savills expects house prices to be flat on average across the UK during 2017 with the London market hit hardest by any negative knock-on. 

For most of the country, Brexit will have little effect on house prices but where there is uncertainty around the economic climate there is also uncertainty around the property market.