Apocalyptic warnings by the Project Fear initiative unleashed in the run up to the June 23 referendum have been proved wholly wrong.
On June 9 the average property price was £297,508 – today that figure is £304,116 according to the latest Zoopla index.
And more mortgages were handed out to first-time buyers in June than in any other month since 2007, banks and building societies reported yesterday.
Analysis of data representing 90 per cent of the entire UK property market undertaken the day before the Brexit vote found changes since are simply the result of the usual summer slowdown in business.
There were 866,179 properties for sale nationally and of these, 352,301 were under agreed offer, representing 40.7 per cent of the market, according to one of Britain’s largest estate agents Jackson-Stops & Staff.
In a further sign of Britain’s Brexit boom, latest data showed average asking prices for properties on sale are up £1,040 – from £240,470 on July 25 to £241,510 on August 8.
Nick Leeming, chairman at Jackson-Stops & Staff, said: “Despite the scaremongering by a number of gloomy commentators, these figures show the housing market continues to remain remarkably resilient.
“There is life after Brexit – the housing market is driven by need and these needs continue to motivate thousands of buyers.
“While the market has weakened slightly following the Brexit result, we usually see a slowdown in activity over the holiday months and these figures suggest we are yet to see a property crisis.
It’s been business as usual after Brexit in terms of activity
Alex Gosling of HouseSimple.com
Many sellers are feeling confident, demonstrated by the fact that asking prices themselves have not fallen – and have in fact seen a moderate increase.”
Council of Mortgage Lenders data showed first-time buyers taking out 34,300 loans in June with a total value of £5.5billion – that is 24 per cent up compared with May and 17 per cent more than in June 2015.
The figure is the highest for first time buyer lending since 35,300 loans were handed out in August 2007.
Existing homeowners moving house took out 33,900 loans in June, up 28 per cent on May and 0.3 per cent on a year earlier.
The CML figures, mainly reflecting the housing market in the run-up to the referendum, show how Britons refused to be intimidated by economic naysayers.
Alex Gosling, CEO of online estate agents HouseSimple.com, said: “Predictions that prices would fall 20-30 per cent if we voted Leave, were simply part of the Project Fear campaign to scare voters.
“It’s been business as usual after Brexit in terms of activity, with many sellers who were waiting on the result of the Referendum now actively marketing their properties.
“What was probably a sellers’ market before the vote is now going to be a more level playing field.”
Last week’s cut in the Bank of England base rate to 0.25 per cent was also a boost to the market, Mr Gosling added.
Adrian Gill, director of Your Move and Reeds Rains estate agents, said: “Brexit may well have an impact on the housing market, but it’s not showing yet.”
Surveyors also reported signs of confidence in the property market after a “wobble” following the vote to leave the EU.
A net balance of five per cent of surveyors reported house prices rising rather than falling last month, according to the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors. Comments from some agents “suggest activity has picked up after an initial wobble, while others cite the Brexit vote as having only a modest or even negligible impact thus far”.
Meanwhile Margaret Thatcher’s former press secretary Sir Bernard Ingham has hit out at banks and businesses opposed to Brexit for talking down the economy following the vote to quit the EU.
He used his regular Yorkshire Post column to also lash out at firms, saying: “It is not just the City but both industry and commerce that employ every wile to part the consumer from his money to maximise their profits.
“With notable exceptions, most of them are now, post-Brexit, engaged in talking down the economy.”
Sir Bernard concluded: “I am thoroughly brassed off with the exploitation of the ordinary consumer and the sheer, destructive negativism of whole swathes of our commercial society and its entirely unreliable economic forecasters.
“I fervently hope that out of the current turmoil Theresa May engineers a more responsible capitalism. If not, it will deserve a pox on all its houses".
