Should you sell your home before Brexit?

The departure of the United Kingdom from the European Union, popularly known as “Brexit”, is due to happen on March 29, 2019, regardless of any deal struck between the British government and Brussels over the future relationship between the two sides. Negotiations, albeit strained, aimed at an amicable split continue, but the possibility of a ‘No Deal’ Brexit, which would mean Britain leaving the European Union without any formal agreement, still exists.

According to Chairman of the Bank of England, Mark Carney, residential property prices could fall by more than a third in the event of a ‘No Deal’ Brexit. A poll of 30 market analysts, conducted by international news agency Reuters, similarly suggested that there was a slightly better than one-in-three chance of major downturn in house prices in the wake of a ‘No Deal’ Brexit.

A so-called ‘Hard’ Brexit, which would sever many of the existing ties between Britain and the European Union, would also be bad news for house prices, according to most experts. In this scenario, Britain would leave the single market and customs union and, instead, seek a free trade deal with the European Union. Negotiating trade deals typically takes many years so, in the interim, any trade barriers will affect wages which, of course, underpin house prices.

If Britain loses access to the single market, some companies, notably financial institutions in the City of London, would lose their ability to service clients in the European Union overnight. Consequently, they would need to move at least a proportion of their workforce to other financial centres, such as Frankfurt or Paris, to continue their operation. In addition, the collapse of Sterling, not to mention the uncertainty surrounding their eventual status in Britain, has already led some European workers to leave the country. This relocation, while regional and relatively small-scale, may well have a knock-on effect on house prices.

Of course, house prices depend on many different factors, including supply, demand, inflation and interest rates, so accurately predicting the future impact of Brexit is nigh on impossible. On August 1, 2018, the Monetary Policy Committee of the Bank of England voted unanimously to increase the Bank Rate by 0.25% to 0.75% and, regardless of the ramifications of Brexit negotiations for the British economy, any further increase(s) will subdue the housing market.

In 2017, house prices grew by a healthy 4.9% but, in 2018, the general consensus is that uncertainty over Brexit will increasingly as a brake on house prices; they will continue to rise across the country, but only by modest percentages, between 1% and 5%, depending on whose estimate you choose to believe. As to the question of whether you should sell your house before, or after, Brexit, frankly only time will tell if the experts are correct in their predictions for the housing market. A recent poll by Bishop’s Move, the largest family owned removals company in the country, suggested that 13% of buyers and sellers had cancelled a housing transaction because of economic uncertainty over Brexit.

EAN Content

Content shared by this account is either news shared free by third parties or sponsored (paid for) content from third parties. Please be advised that links to third party websites are not endorsed by Estate Agent Networking - Please do your own research before committing to any third party business promoted on our website. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.

You May Also Enjoy

Home and Living

High Quality Modular Homes for the UK

Are you looking for added accommodation space in your garden / on your land? Modular Living Homes by tutumHOUSE offer a new way to live – minimalist in form, rich in experience. “There are approximately 9.6 million homes in the UK with a garden shed, and around 52% of the population owns one.” asgardsss There…
Read More
Estate Agent Talk

The most stressful places to move to in the UK

With more people in the UK moving homes during summer than any other season and the average cost of moving in the UK rising to over £14,000, picking the right place to move to has become more crucial than ever. Luckily, new research from Pay Less for Storage reveals the UK cities that make life easiest…
Read More
Estate Agent Talk

Time-Traveling Estate Agent Sequel Climbs Amazon Charts

A UK Estate Agent Currently Bringing Joy to People’s Lives – Shame He’s Fictional…   Eric Meek, the fictional estate agent created by author Dale Bradford, is back for a second outing in The Time‑Travelling Estate Agent 2, a sequel that is already climbing Amazon’s bestselling time‑travel rankings. Estate agents were recently highlighted as the third…
Read More
Estate Agent Talk

Is it finally time for lenders to back green homes?

Andrew Smith weighs the risks and rewards Property developers are increasingly pitching green homes to lenders; however, with sales cycles slowing down and repair costs rising, is now the right time to back sustainable builds and at what price point is there market demand? Sustainability is continuing to shape our future of construction with the…
Read More
Breaking News

Breaking Property News 24/07/25

Daily bite-sized proptech and property news in partnership with Proptech-X.   OpticWise – digital infrastructure in commercial real estate If your building were a product, how would it perform on the user experience scale?  Week 9: Experience as Infrastructure – Designing for Human-Centric Buildings Welcome to Week 9 of our 52-week journey into the future…
Read More
new build homes colchester essex
Breaking News

UK Housebuilding Falters as Construction Hiring Flatlines

New research from Inventory Base reveals that UK construction industry employment has increased by almost 11% in the past five years, but there has been less than 1% growth in the past 12 months. Inventory Base’s analysis of the UK construction industry shows that in 2024 (latest data available) it employed an estimated total of…
Read More