What Britain’s decision to leave the EU will do to its property market is a question that has been asked frequently.
The simplest answer to the question possibly lies in what we’ve already seen, which isn’t a lot, according to Buy Association.
The property advice website says the impact of the Brexit vote last year was hardly noticeable when it comes to the property market.
House prices have been rising constantly with only London being an exception to that rule.
London has seen a decrease in house prices and with that seems to have lost its Number One spot of ever growing desirability.
But Paulina Carl, Author at Buy Association, said: “Putting that purely down to Brexit would be a great mistake, especially considering the stamp duty changes came into effect only two months prior to the referendum.
“And the argument that a change to tax regulations adding a rather substantial amount to an already rather large price tag will have a bigger impact on an investor’s decision than the possibility of a country leaving a political union is an easy one to make.
“Which means one may be better off explaining London’s dropping popularity with tax changes rather than political instability.”
When it comes to the rest of the country, there’s one simple factor that, almost automatically, makes Brexit seem less important – the growing gap between supply and demand.
Estimates suggest the country is in need of 174,000 new homes to be built every year to balance out the demand – but Britain is far from reaching this at the moment.
Paulina added: “If anything, triggering Article 50 was the first step towards certainty after almost nine months of not knowing what will happen next.
“So whilst the next two years might be a bit of a bumpier ride, filled with hard negotiations and tough decisions, the long-term outlook for Britain’s property market is still one worth taking note of.”
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 per cent) 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.”
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