Housing transactions fell 20% in the second quarter of the year compared with the same period in 2015, the LSL/Acadata survey reported this morning.
But it said this had more to do with the Stamp Duty deadline than with nervousness in the run-up to the referendum.
The survey also said that while annual house price growth slowed to 5.5% in July – the average house price standing at £293,318 – transaction levels edged up last month.
Furthermore, because there was such a huge spike in sales in March, despite the massive decline in April, sales in the first half of this year are likely to have been 4% higher than for the same period last year.
The survey said that the “exceptional” sales level in March more than compensated for the decline since.
It also pointed out that while sales volumes rose in July, these would have been registered at the Land Registry before the referendum took place.
Adrian Gill, director of Your Move and Reeds Rains – both owned by LSL – said: “Brexit may well have an impact on the housing market, but it’s not showing yet.
“Even when it does, there will be positive as well as negative influences on the market, which clearly has some strong long-term drivers for continued house price inflation.”
According to the survey, house prices nudged up just 0.2%, making July the fifth month in succession at which the annual rate of house price inflation has fallen. Even so, the 5.5% rise in annual house price inflation put an average gain of £15,422 on house prices.
Acadata analyst Peter Williams said: “The market was contracting pre-Brexit and the question remains how will it perform post the Brexit vote and ultimately, on exit?”
I don’t think Brexit has as much influence on the housing market as people would like. London is seriously over priced and like a pebble in a pond the ripples move out to the suburbs then to the rest of the country.
If you are a Londoner and don’t think you can realise as much as you hoped you simply sit tight and wait a bit longer.
If you are a buyer and you cant see anything in your price range you simply sit tight and wait a bit longer.
The pull and push of the property market has always been like this.
The ripple effect is the same everywhere else, Cardiff, Birmingham etc.
As the chancellor has added higher costs for Landlords, there will be a shortage of homes to rent and when FTB incomes increase they will enter the market and buy. So now we sit and wait.
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Spot on. Brexit is filling us with excuses. Let the tides turn and we’ll be fine.
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There’s a lot of agents using brexit as a smoke screen and an excuse as to why they’re quiet. I mentioned this the other day. Of course people were going to wait and see what happens but we’re an impatient breed and soon realised nothing had changed and people continued to go about their business the same way pre brexit.
Some people buy way too much into the media hype about property prices dropping etc, we’ve noticed asking prices have had to come down to get people through the doors, but the sale prices are still in line with pre brexit.
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