Brexit uncertainty plays its part in a house price growth fall of 23% in Doncaster

House price growth has fallen by 23% in Doncaster since the EU referendum, Land Registry figures show.
Effect of Brexit uncertaintyEffect of Brexit uncertainty
Effect of Brexit uncertainty

The situation reflects the national picture, with growth in prices dropping to less a third of its previous strong level.

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.

Effect of Brexit uncertaintyEffect of Brexit uncertainty
Effect of Brexit uncertainty
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Doncaster has nearly 6,000 more voters since the Brexit vote
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Home Office figures show that in June 2016, the month the UK voted to leave the EU, the average sale price of properties in Doncaster was £121,942 – an 11% increase on two-and-a-half years before.

But in the same period following the Brexit referendum, the average increased by just 0.4%, to £123,062 in January. It is a picture reflected across Yorkshire and The Humber, where house price growth dropped from 12.8% in the two-and-a-half years before the referendum, to 6.0% afterwards.

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.

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"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.

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The number of properties sold in Doncaster in 2018 showed a slowdown in the local market.

The data, available to the end of November, shows that 3,988 properties were sold over the 11 months. It was a 5.2% drop on the number of sales in the same period in 2017 – across the UK, sales dropped by 5.5%.