Andy Sommerville, director of Search Acumen, comments on the RICS residential market survey, May 2016:
“The government must be slightly startled that the possibility of a Brexit is engineering, for a very brief window, what it wanted to achieve along – greater affordability in housing.
“Fear, whether it’s rational or not, is driving the housing market, with prices in the capital already dipping downward, potentially due to overseas investors halting activity and regular citizens choosing to sit still until they’re on firmer ground.
“Regardless of the referendum, housing prospects remains bleak and a short term drop is unlikely to be beneficial to the average first time buyer, although some may be able to capitalise on the temporary advantage.
“The only solution to unaffordability remains those 240,000 houses that need building every year. Whether or not we leave the EU, we will still have to deliver more homes and this temporary uncertainty in the economy isn’t going to help get them build any quicker.”