London Housing Boom to End in 2017 as Brexit Bites, Broker Says
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Countrywide sees home values falling for first time since 2009
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Prime central London prices to drop as much as 6% this year
Home values in London will fall for the first time since 2009 next year on economic uncertainty resulting from the U.K.’s vote to leave the European Union, according to Countrywide Plc.
Price growth for homes in the capital will slow to 3.5 percent this year and drop by 1.25 percent in 2017, the country’s largest real estate broker said in a report on Monday. Countrywide in December forecast that values would increase by 4 percent this year and next. Prices for properties in prime central London will drop as much as 6 percent this year and be little changed in 2017, the report showed.
“The vote to leave the European Union has unsettled the U.K. economy,” Countrywide chief economist Fionnuala Earley said by phone. Lower expectations of capital gains were already weighing on London’s housing market, she said, while the luxury-property market was being hurt by increased sales taxes and oversupply. “The Brexit scare has just accelerated all of that,” she said…
London Housing Boom to End in 2017 as Brexit Bites, Broker Says
