If you’re a renter, you probably want house prices to fall. If you’re a homeowner, you probably want them to rise.
But whoever you are, house prices matter.
So it’s no surprise they have been front and centre of the EU referendum debate.
The Chancellor, George Osborne, kicked off the discussion by warning a Brexit could be a “significant shock to the housing market that would hit the value of people’s homes”.
But what do the experts say?
David Cox, managing director of the Association of Residential Letting Agents (ARLA) and Mark Hayward, managing director of National Association of Estate Agents (NAEA), said: “The outcome of today’s EU referendum will create a period of uncertainty among homeowners, buyers, investors, landlords and developers.
“We can expect international investors to look a lot harder at the UK as a market; this will have a consequential impact upon the house building sector as investment may be stalled.
The current state of the housing market
“In the short term we believe that both prices, and rents, will remain stable, but we cannot be certain about the next quarter as political instability, and market unrest, could lead through into prices in the housing market.
“We believe that the UK housing market is resilient, as is the supply chain that drives it.
“But as we indicated in our Brexit report1 last month, the bigger impact may well be in the skills necessary to drive UK housing development, and this is now a major concern for UK buyers and renters.”
Richard Lambert, chief executive officer at the National Landlords Association (NLA), said: “Let’s just everyone, take a long, deep, calm breath.
“Leaving the EU is completely unknown territory, and jumping to conclusions isn’t going to help anyone.
“We welcome Mark Carney’s steadying words and his reassurance that the Bank of England and the Treasury have extensive contingency plans in place to ensure the country’s financial stability.
“Any knee-jerk reaction will have a real impact on our members’ mortgages, tenants’ rents and overall confidence in the market.
“So we would urge the policy as regards to interest rates should be, to continue the Prime Minister’s analogy, one of steady as she goes.”