More houses on the market than in 8 years: How might the general election affect the housing market in the UK?

How might the UK’s general election affect the housing market?

Transcript

00:00Well, I think given the short run into the general election, in general, general elections

00:06don't affect activity in the housing market, but we've already seen indicators that transactions

00:12are being deferred and that activity is actually slowing down pending the outcome of the election.

00:19But I expect that this to be, I'll call it a short pause while the outcome is decided.

00:27Richard Donnell, Executive Director of Research at Zoopla, said there is a record high supply

00:32of homes for sale which shows renewed confidence among sellers, many of whom are also buyers.

00:38He added the general election is likely to dampen the number of sales agreed in the run-up

00:42to summer.

00:44Is it a good time to buy? If you can afford it, it's always a good time to buy in my view.

00:52But it's affordability that is the key thing. I know from talking to my own staff at

00:57many of whom are in the under 30 or around 30 category looking to buy their first home.

01:04Many of them are saying, well, you know, I can buy it, but what happens if interest rates

01:09don't come down? What happens? You know, can they afford the monthly repayments? That is

01:15the key factor. I mean, provided you don't believe the outcome of the election will affect

01:20your employment prospects in the medium term. That's the main problem.

01:26You know, it's a terribly traumatic thing to take on a fixed commitment like that and

01:33suddenly find that, you know, quote, your salary has gone away or one of the earners

01:37has lost their job or because of an economic recession. So the key question for any first

01:43time buyer, indeed any buyer, is will the outcome of the election trigger an economic

01:48recession? Against that background, of course, we've seen zero growth in GDP in the last

01:5630 days against a fractional growth in the month before.