Falling house prices may not be due to Brexit

August 16, 2016 by Brendan

House Prices

Property prices dipped slightly in July, prompting experts to warn that the fall in prices may not be due to the result of the EU referendum, earlier this year.

Although property prices rose by 8.4% in July, compared with prices last year, the value of property fell by 1% between June and July this year. According to data released by the Halifax, the average house price fell from £216,726 to £214,678.

An economist from Pantheon Macroeconomics, Samuel Tombs, warned that the monthly decline may not be connected to the EU referendum result, saying that:

“It is too soon to see the impact of Brexit on house prices in this data.”

Tombs added that the dip in prices was likely to be due to the volatility of the property market, rather than Brexit.

He added that the study doesn’t include information about whether buyers haggled for a lower price or reneged on a purchase following the referendum, so it isn’t possible to tell whether the referendum affected house prices using the data. However, Tombs did say that the recent cutting of the Bank of England base rate was good news for home owners, with the future of property prices looking a little more positive.

The founder of eMoov, the online estate agent, Russell Quirk, said that the summer months are always slower than other periods for residential property sales. CeMAP qualified mortgage advisers are kept aware of all changes to the property market, and are in the best position to provide advice for anyone buying or selling a home.