House prices fallen in Inner London since EU referendum, following growth before

House prices have fallen in Inner London since the EU referendum, following growth in the years immediately prior.

It shows the local situation is even more extreme than the national picture, where growth in prices has dropped to less than a third of its previous levels.

The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors says that Brexit uncertainty, a drop in foreign investment and stretched affordability have all played their part in stunting growth.

Home Office figures show that in June 2016, the month the UK voted to leave the EU, the average sale price of properties in Inner London was £566,684 – a 27.3% increase on two-and-a-half years before.

But in the same period following the Brexit referendum, the average fell by 0.7%, to £567,864 in January.

It is a picture reflected across London, where house prices grew 33.0% in the two-and-a-half years before the referendum, but have fallen by 0.7% since.

Across the UK, growth dropped from 19.6% to 6.1%.

Simon Rubinson, RICS’s chief economist, said a combination of factors meant that all regions of the UK were being affected.

He said: “There are affordability issues in parts of the country, particularly in London and the South East.

“Taxation is also a big issue – if you look at what has happened in terms of the buy-to-let market, the returns are now relatively limited.

“But when we asked our members for our last survey, despite attempting to get them away from Brexit, they said Brexit uncertainty was the main factor.”

Mr Rubinson warned that a deal for Britain’s departure from the EU was unlikely to be the end of uncertainty for the housing market, or lead to a sudden rise in prices.

But, he added, for many younger buyers looking to get on the property ladder, this may not be such a bad thing.

The number of properties sold in Inner London in 2018 showed a slowdown in the local market. The data, available to the end of November, shows that 28,594 properties were sold over the 11 months.

It was a 17.7% drop on the number of sales in the same period in 2017 – across the UK, sales dropped by 5.5%.