Should I postpone my house purchase post-Brexit?
Q: Should I postpone my house purchase post-Brexit for now? Or perhaps offer less?
Wait at your peril. The Bank of England and the government cannot afford to oversee a slowdown in the economy. Any threat of reducing house prices is also a threat to how confident people feel about their equity and, consequently, their buying power.
My bet is that the current Bank of England base rate of 0.5% will fall even further very soon in order to buoy the economy and the cost of buying a home. That will fuel demand and so house prices are not going to go into reverse and decline. Why would they? Nothing else has changed in the housing market and there are still more buyers than sellers.
My advice is to carry on as normal. Don’t panic about Brexit, it’ll take another two to three years to actually leave the EU in any case.
You could offer less, but frankly there would be no justification to do so and if the seller was our client, we would urge them not to accept a lower figure.
Answered by Russell Quirk, eMoov
Related guides:
- What does Brexit mean for homeowners?
- The HOA Step-by-Step Guide to Buying a Home
- Making an offer and haggling over the price
- The hidden costs of buying and owning a property
- How much can I afford?
- What type of mortgage should I get?
- How the government can help you buy a home: An overview of schemes
- Clever questions to ask the estate agent
- How much is stamp duty and when do I pay?