The housing market moves much slower than the financial markets, but Brexit has already had an impact, with a slowdown hitting even before the vote.
Any direct impact on the economy means Brexit will hurt house prices, and while that could be good for first-time buyers in theory, if economic ructions hit employment, it could benefit buy-to-let landlords to a much greater extent.
The New Statesman’s Staggers editor Julia Rampen reports:
As the quarterly housing reports arrive, we can expect a sharp drop off in house prices. Richard Donnell, Insight Director at property analysts Hometrack, said: “The near term prospects for the UK housing market now look very uncertain. “The immediate impact is likely to be a fall in housing turnover and a rapid deceleration in house price growth as buyers adopt a wait and see the short term impact on financial markets and the economy at large.”
London house prices – widely viewed to be nearing bubble territory – will be most likely to drop off, he predicted: “History shows that external shocks can reduce sales volumes by as much as 20% with sales volumes already down over the last year.”
Read our full analysis: Will Brexit hurt house prices?
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