There has been a gloomy response to the latest Knight Frank measure of house price sentiment - the first of its kind taken since the result of the EU referendum.
Households across all price ranges and tenures were assessed between July 14 and 18 by the agency and consultancy IHS Markit - and they revealed that the sentiment index has fallen below 50 for the first time since February 2013.
The findings show, according to Knight Frank, that households across the UK perceive the value of their homes slipped in July - in detail, respondents in nine of the 11 regions covered by the index believe prices fell over the course of the previous month.
The majority of households nonetheless expect the value of their home to rise over the next 12 months - but at the most modest rate since October 2012.
Perhaps predictably, households in the south of England are more confident about price rises than those in the north of England, Scotland or Wales.
“The impact of uncertainty in the wake of the Brexit vote is clear especially in light of the relative strength of sentiment in the run-up to the vote” says Gráinne Gilmore, head of UK residential research at Knight Frank.
“As well as geographical variations, there are wide differences in expectations depending on age groups, with those aged over 55 expecting the value of their home to dip over the next 12 months as well as those aged 18 to 24. All other age-groups expect prices to rise modestly” she adds.
Later this week Foxtons will release to the City its figures for the first half of the year - it released a profits warning a few days after the referendum, so financial commentators are pessimistic. The broker Numis anticipates profits for the six months to the end of June are set to be just £12m, down from £20.5m for the same period in the previous year.
Shares in the estate agent have fallen 30 per cent since the referendum result.
This all comes on top of news that LSL Property Services has issued a profits warning for the second half of 2016, citing Brexit as one of the reasons.
LSL, which operates Your Move, Reeds Rains and other brands, says: “The EU referendum outcome has led to further consumer uncertainty and LSL’s post-referendum trading performance has reflected these market conditions.”
In a trading statement it warns that operating profit would be “significantly lower than previously anticipated” adding that it “does not expect market conditions to improve sufficiently to meet the board’s expectations for the full year”.
Shortly after the Brexit vote, Foxtons issued a profits warning, again citing Brexit as one of the causes.
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Arh the 'Brexit' catch all bandwagon - why not?
So we are now basing market expectations on what owners think their property will do? Shock- they all think values will go up in 12 months....think or hope? What's more, can the media stop blaming everything on Brexit, the London property market (dare I say crisis) that we are now facing has much more to do with an over heated market revealed by an intentional restriction placed on foreign buyers (sensibly) and a non existent housing policy with almost no property (other than shared ownership) available for first time buyers with a household income under £100k+.
The London housing Bubble was going to burst despite Bexit, how about Foxtons look at taking money laundering sales perhaps. Or was that just one case or two or twenty or more?
Their share value has further to fall till the government does another big bailout to restore this stupid housing bubble.
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