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