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Post Brexit, Confidence is Key in Housing

Darren Ludbrook, owner of Ludbrooks Estate Agents in Halifax, has offered his advice to homeowners and home buyers in Yorkshire on how last weeks’ vote to leave the European Union may affect the local property market.

“It’s a very interesting and unique situation nationally, and that will affect Yorkshire as much as anywhere else in the country” commented Mr Ludbrook. “There are certain to be repercussions, but it remains to be seen exactly what changes will happen.”

“The treasury warned before the election that house prices could be set to fall anywhere from between 10 and 18 percent and this may well be true if interest rates are increased making borrowing more expensive. If the pound does fall in value significantly, the Bank of England will likely increase those interest rates as a way of tackling inflation. In previous periods of great change such as the financial crisis in 2008 house prices fell as far as 15 percent, although homeowners in Yorkshire will be happy to know that the drop in prices is not as great in the North of England. Despite this, while our houses do lose less value, they do tend to gain value more slowly.”

“On the other hand, the stock market typically accurately reflects the confidence of industry experts and on Friday all major developers took a hit, with companies such as Taylor Wimpey losing up to a third of their value. If new houses are not built on the back of this, then the existing housing stock will become more valuable and so property prices could in fact increase.”

Mr Ludbrook states that, in such a unique political and economic climate, all the power is with the general public. “The important thing to remember at this uncertain time is confidence. People buying and selling property is what determines the market, not the decisions of stock traders. There are still systems in place such as Help to Buy for first time buyers and people shouldn’t be dissuaded by the events of the past week.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Darren Ludbrook .