House prices are like Brexit talks

The latest house price index shows very little happening in the market, with analysts expecting little significant movement until Brexit is sorted, at least in principle.

Nationwide’s figures, released over the weekend, show prices in May fell 0.2 per cent from April, with the lender saying the market was subdued thanks to uncertainty.

Compared with a year earlier, house prices rose 0.6 per cent - but that’s slower than the 0.9 per cent rise recorded the previous month.

Annual house price growth has been below one per cent for six months in a row, according to the Nationwide.

Agents, perhaps like much of the country, appear to be growing weary of an absence of political and economic direction which might spur the housing market.

“We see no real pattern for the market emerging - one month prices, transactions or mortgage approvals are up, then down or very little movement the next. The good news at the sharp end is that there is no major correction being seen or expected for the time being at least, despite some predictions to the contrary” explains Jeremy Leaf, north London estate agent and a former RICS residential chairman.

And he adds: ‘The recent EU parliamentary elections demonstrate the country is still massively divided about Brexit just as the property market is split about how to remove the uncertainty it has created.'

Meanwhile Benham and Reeves director Marc von Grundherr asks: “Who would have thought that almost three years on from the EU Referendum the UK property market would be running primarily on a cocktail of first-time buyer demand and low mortgage rates?”

Mike Scott, chief property analyst at online agency Yopa, says: “It seems that prices have reached the limits of affordability, with would-be-buyers struggling to raise the necessary deposits. However, the number of houses sold is holding steady, the supply of homes is still very limited, and the economic fundamentals remain strong, with low unemployment, low mortgage interest rates, rising average earnings and good mortgage availability.”