Even the most sane person in
Britain has to admit the Brexit vote will, in one shape or another, affect the
UK Property market. Excluding central London which is another world, most
commentators are saying prices will be affected by around 10%. So looking at
the commentators’ thoughts in more detail, property values in Crawley will be
10% lower than they would have been if we hadn’t voted to leave the EU.
As the average value of a
property in the Crawley Borough Council area is £267,800, this means property
values are set to drop for the average Crawley property by £26,780 … batten
down the hatches .. soup kitchens and mega recession here we come ..it’s going
to get rough.
..
but before we all go into panic mode in Crawley .. the devil is always in the
detail
Look at the phrase again, and
I have highlighted the relevant part “Property values in Crawley will be 10%
lower than they would have been if we hadn’t voted to leave the EU”
Property values today,
according to the Land Registry are 13.95% higher than a year ago in the Crawley
Borough Council area. The 12 months before that they rose by 12.83% and the 12
months before that, they rose by 15.26%. If we hadn’t voted to leave, I believe
on these figures, we could have safely assumed Crawley House prices would have
been 13% higher by the Summer of 2017.
… and that’s the point, we
won’t see a house price crash in Crawley, it’s just that house prices in a years
time will only be 3% higher than they are now (ie 13% less the 10% lower figure because of Brexit). Let’s look at
the historic figures and how that compares to today’s figures for the Crawley Borough
Council area and Crawley as a whole.
Average Value of a property
20 years ago £ 53,900
Average Value of a property
10 years ago £174,800
Average Value of a property 2
years ago £208,300
Average Value of a property 1
year ago £235,000
Average Value of a property
today £267,800
Projected Value of a property
in 12 months’ time £275,800
Therefore, I believe the
average value of a Crawley property will be £8,000 higher in 12 months’ time
than today.
That’s not to say Crawley
property prices might not dip slightly in the run up to Christmas (in fact they
always have done just about every year since the year 2000 and most of those
were boom years) .. but in 12 months time this is my considered opinion of
where Crawley property values will be.. and looking at the historic prices,
even if I (and many other property market commentators) are wrong and they drop
10% from TODAY’S figure .. in the whole scheme of things, we have been through
a Credit Crunch, Black Monday and 15% interest rates over the last 20 to 30 years
.. and still Crawley house prices have always bounced back.
Whilst the UK's vote for Brexit has created
an uncertainty in the Crawley housing market, there is no need to panic and
prospective buyers should merely use common sense about their purchases. I
always say to people to be prudent and if you are taking out a mortgage, at
some stage during the life of that mortgage, circumstances will be difficult.
We won’t have a 2008 Credit crunch fire sale of properties because after the Mortgage Market Review which took place in the
Spring of 2013, mortgage borrowers are not as highly leveraged this time
around. As a result of this, with any luck there will not be too many
distressed sales, which cause widespread price reductions.
.. and Crawley
landlords? They have recently been thrashed by Osborne’s tax changes, but yields
could rise if Crawley house prices fall/stablise and rents grow, and this might
also make it easier to obtain mortgages, as the income would cover more of the
interest cost. If prices were to level or come down that could help Crawley
landlords add to their portfolio, as rental demand for Crawley property is
expected to stay strong as more people find it more and more difficult to
obtain mortgages.
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