‘Market has proved extremely resilient’
House Simple, said: “Hopefully these figures will once and for all put to bed fears that property prices would collapse after we voted to leave the EU. It’s been over a year since the country voted Brexit, and although price growth has slowed, talk of prices plummeting 18 to 25 per cent was pure scaremongering.
“The UK housing market has proved extremely resilient to some pretty seismic political events over the past 12 months, and has come out the other side relatively unscathed. There’s no reason to think that the property market can’t navigate any potentially choppy waters ahead.” Russell Quirk, founder of eMoov.co.uk, added: “The attempt by Mr Osborne, Chancellor Philip Hammond and many others to talk the puff out of the UK economy and its related housing market, were grossly exaggerated and in fact completely wrong.”
The main contribution to the increase has come from homes in England, where prices rose 5.2 per cent over the year to June 2017, with the average price now £240,000.
Wales saw house prices up 3.6 per cent to stand at £152,000, Scotland, by 2.9 per cent to reach £144,000 while the average price in Northern Ireland currently stands at £129,000, an increase of 4.4 per cent.
The ONS shows all regions saw price growth in the last year with the East recording the biggest gains at 7.2 per cent. This was followed by the East Midlands at 7.1 per cent.
The lowest growth was in the North-east, where prices increased by 2.5 per cent over the year, followed by London at 2.9 per cent.
TV property expert Sarah Beeny, who owns online estate agent Tepilo, said: “I think this is excellent news for everyone.
“People already on the ladder still benefit from their properties increasing in value, whilst first-time buyers are much more likely to be able to afford their first property rather than being continuously priced out by steep monthly rises.
“This type of growth is much more sustainable.” Additional figures from the Council for Mortgage Lenders also show first-time buyers borrowed £5.9billion, up 26 per cent on the previous month and nine per cent on June 2016. Home movers borrowed £7.8billion, up 26 per cent on May and 15 per cent year-on-year.
Buy-to-let lending was also up three per cent on May and the same amount on June last year.
Jeremy Duncombe, director at Legal & General Mortgage Club, said: “A year on from the EU referendum, the mortgage market remains stable even in the face of ongoing uncertainty. As these figures show, lending remains buoyant and buyers are mostly undeterred.”
IF you cast your mind back to the first half of 2016 and the days of the EU referendum campaign you may just recall George Osborne’s warning that a vote for Brexit would see house prices fall by 18 per cent. This was Project Fear at its very worst as the then chancellor used a flimsy report stuffed with dubious statistics to threaten British homeowners.
Fast forward to the present day and we can see what really happened to house prices after the Leave victory. A report from the Office for National Statistics – based on actual figures rather than bogus projections – shows that average house prices have risen almost five per cent in the 12 months leading up to June this year.
One by one the doom and gloom warnings are being proved wrong. Economic growth is strong and employment is high.
Even the leaders of big businesses, many of whom backed Project Fear, are showing confidence in Britain with a number of important firms having announced big plans to invest and expand in this country.
Just think what more we can achieve when we are freed from the EU shackles. We can cut red tape and encourage enterprise, sign new trade deals and engage with the world again, and spend the billions we send to Brussels on our own priorities whether that’s improving public services, paying down the national debt or lowering taxes.
What a relief that on June 23 last year voters said no to the scaremongering of Project Fear and chose to believe in Britain instead.