UK house prices - Brexit and beyond

Yes, it's that time of year when the newspapers phone their favourite property pundits for their predictions for the year ahead. With so many blaming political and Brexit uncertainty for the rather sluggish 2019, surely 2020 is the year when property takes off? Well... no.

The general election has indeed given a level of political certainty and a clear direction for the immediate future of Brexit.

Some commentators have suggested that this will feed through into the housing market as a backlog of buyers and sellers feel more confident in taking their next steps. These may be true in the short term, but the property market will continue to be driven by its fundamentals - supply and demand.

During 2019 we saw these coming into some kind of balance - supply having increased just slightly and demand being constrained by affordability. Neither of those are likely to change much during 2020, so, according to many observers, expect more of the same. Hence the modest predictions of around 1% to 3% for the year

Beyond Brexit

Current regional trends are likely to continue, with our favoured markets - the North West, Yorkshire and the Midlands outperforming the property powerhouses of London and the South East. A nice infographic from the fine folks at Savills -

Add in the higher rental yields achieved outside of the South East and there are some very respectable returns available.