While Europe is astir after the Brexit vote, how have or will the property market in the United Kingdom respond? Prior to the vote, London home prices were already rising with the average at a considerable ￡310,500 or S$611,000. That was about 5.5 per cent higher in May this year compared to the same month last year.
Prices have however fell 0.2 per cent with effect from a new property-tax regulations in place. An increase in taxes have helped first-time buyers get ahead of landlords who have had the upped hand in the leasing market for sometime. In the breathless weeks before the EU vote, home sales and prices were understandably suppressed as fewer property owners were putting their properties on the market due to the uncertainties. Property analysts hoping for a remain vote were hoping for the vote to help put things back to normal. But now, the future is murky, and seems it will be so for sometime more as the country struggles to make sense of the vote and how to move on henceforth.
Properties in London may take the largest hit as international investors are the top buyers of properties in this borough. Home prices of prime central London properties have already fallen by half but the fall of the sterling may spur some investors to make use of the opportunity to pick up some good deals.
