How has the UK property industry fared since the EU referendum?

Today marks five years since the EU referendum. The vote, and the subject of Brexit more generally, continues to divide opinion and spark a great deal of debate.  

I remember the build-up to the vote well. The rhetoric applied by both sides, not to mention some questionable campaigning tactics, incited fears about what Brexit (or remaining in the EU) could mean for the UK’s future. 

The property market was certainly not immune to such speculation. Bold predictions abounded, not just before the referendum, but in the four-and-a-half years that followed. 

For example, in May 2016, just weeks before the polling stations opened, the serving Chancellor George Osborne warned that UK house prices could tumble by up to 18%  if the country voted in favour of Brexit. 

So protracted has the Brexit process been, with little clarity on what a deal would look like until late December 2020, that the trend continues long after the vote. In September 2018, Mark Carney, then governor of the Bank of England, said that house prices could fall by as much as 35% in a three-year period after the UK left the EU if a deal was not agreed.  

And so, as we reach the five-year anniversary of that historic referendum, now is an opportune moment to assess what Brexit has actually meant for the property market thus far. Indeed, it is a subject I have written about in the press this week, with pieces published in the likes of Property Reporter and Property Investor Today, among others.  

What’s more, to delve into this topic in greater depth, Market Financial Solutions has created a new report: Five Years On – How the UK Property Market has Fared since the EU Referendum 

This report, which is free to download, charts house prices from June 2016 to date. It also looks at the way the property market has evolved, including topics such as record low interest rates, supply shortages and tax reforms.  

Click here to download your copy of the report.