EU exit boosts house prices: Owners across whole country see big rises after Referendum

HOUSE prices and mortgage lending continue to rise on the back of the Brexit vote as the UK property market goes from strength to strength.

Banks and building societies recorded their strongest figures for the month of June for eight years as they handed over £20.7bn of home loans.

That is a 16 per cent increase compared with May’s total of £17.8bn, according to the Council of Mortgage Lenders, showing how buyers and movers ignored the Project Fear economic warnings in the run up to the referendum.

And property prices across the UK’s major cities have failed to falter post-Brexit and continue to record double-digit annual growth in June.

City property values in June were 10.2 per cent higher than a year earlier — matching the annual rate seen in May – said property analysts Hometrack.

The uplift is stronger than a 6.9 per cent year-on-year price uplift seen in June 2015.

The great Northern cities of Manchester, Liverpool and Leeds – where millions of people voted Leave in June’s referendum to exit the EU – are leading the way.

Lower interest rates, improving local economies and higher returns for landlords are making purchases in the North attractive to investors and the market has seen strong growth in the last quarter on the back of more affordable prices compared with the South.

Our view remains that sales volumes are likely to slow and price growth will moderate
Richard Donnell, Hometrack
A typical home in Manchester now costs £147,400 after a nine per cent increase, while in Leeds the average value is £151,800 (7.6 per cent) and Liverpool £112,200 (6.1 per cent).

Sheffield has recorded a 4.3 per cent increase to £128,800 and Newcastle a rise of 3.6 per cent to stand at £126,400.

Doom-mongers predicting economic meltdown in the wake of the Brexit result have been left non-plussed by a raft of positive figures.

Earlier this week, official figures showed record high levels of employment and the week before the Bank of England defied predictions by keeping the base interest rate on hold at 0.5 per cent.

There have been suggestions that a rate cut may come next month, potentially making some borrowers’ costs even cheaper.

Bristol remains the fastest-growing city in the UK for house price increases, with a year-on-year growth rate of 14.7 per cent, found the report which tracks house price movements across the UK’s 20 biggest cities.

A surge of investors piling into the housing market earlier this year has helped to keep prices pushing upwards across the UK, Hometrack said.

On April 1, a stamp duty hike was introduced for buy-to-let investors, and there were signs of investors rushing to snap up properties before the tax increase came into force.

The ripple effect through April, May and June boosted mortgage lending and the value for June was three per cent higher than the £20.1bn for the same month last year.

This latest lending total is the highest for June since the £22.6bn reached in 2008, the CML figures showed.

But year-on-year house price growth in London and in other cities in the South of England, such as Cambridge, Southampton and Bournemouth started to slow between May and June.

Richard Donnell, insight director at Hometrack, said: “In many large regional cities, sales appear to have held up thanks to a combination of much better housing affordability, improving economic growth and record low mortgage rates helping to stimulate demand.”

He said it is “still very early days” to assess the full impact of the vote to leave the EU on the housing market.

But Mr Donnell added: “Our view remains that sales volumes are likely to slow and price growth will moderate over the second half of the year.”

How house prices have grown across the UK’s major cities in the year to June.
Bristol, £253,400, 14.7 per cent

London, £476,800, 13.7 per cent

Cambridge, £411,800, 11.5 per cent

Southampton, £214,600, 9.7 per cent

Portsmouth, £215,700, 9.3 per cent

Manchester, £147,400, 9.0 per cent

Oxford, £407,800, 8.7 per cent

Birmingham, £143,300, 8.3 per cent

Bournemouth, £265,000, 8.0 per cent

Nottingham, £137,800, 7.8 per cent

Leeds, £151,800, 7.6 per cent

Leicester, £151,800, 7.5 per cent

Cardiff, £188,700, 6.8 per cent

Liverpool, £112,200, 6.1 per cent

Sheffield, £128,800, 4.3 per cent

Glasgow, £113,400, 3.7 per cent

Newcastle, £126,400, 3.6 per cent

Edinburgh, £203,500, 3.2 per cent

Belfast, £122,700, 2.6 per cent

Aberdeen, £179,900, minus 8.2 per cent