UK house prices saw fastest rises for a year in June
08-27-2016
News Category: Industry News
House prices appear to have survived the initial aftermath of the Brexit vote in June's referendum, according to a new report released on property prices up to the halfway point of the year, but experts say it is too early to judge the effect the vote had on prices at this point.
Data released this week by the Office For National Statistics (ONS), which runs right up until the last week of June, seven days after the Brexit vote was confirmed, shows that the average house price in the UK climbed by some 8.7 per cent when compared to the same time last year.
It took the average price of property across the UK to more than £214,000, according to the official figures, which means that homeowners are now selling for around £17,000 more than they could have done at this time last year.
This price rise is far faster than we saw earlier in the year, and it almost seems to suggest that around the referendum, people were becoming more confident about what the outcome would mean for the property market. Price rises seem to suggest a return to activity in a market where people had adopted a real wait-and-see attitude in recent times.
Richard Snook, a senior economist at PwC, said of the price rises nationwide that although there appears to have been an immediate jump in prices, it's a little too early to judge the market as a whole, predicting that there would be some slowing throughout the rest of the year.
“We expect that the vote to leave the EU will have a significant impact on the housing market. In our main scenario, average UK house property growth will decelerate to around three per cent this year and around one per cent in 2017.
“Cumulatively, our estimates suggest average UK house prices in 2018 could be eight per cent lower than if the UK had voted to stay in the EU.”
This could end up being good news for the PRS and landlords, however. If prices are slowing, it normally means lower activity, which would be indicative of a market wherein we are seeing more people choosing to rent homes rather than buying them.