A number of real estate brokers have warned of a real estate tsunami in the UK as the country heads towards a vote to leave the European Union.
The UK is the world’s fourth largest market for home sales, and is the only EU member state without a permanent seat on the bloc’s economic council, the European Commission.
Many UK brokers are warning of a wave of new sales following the Brexit vote, which would see the country leave the bloc.
“The market has really started to explode in London, in Manchester and in Liverpool,” one broker told the Financial Times.
“People are getting into more properties, and people are going back to where they came from.
The average price of a home in the capital has gone up by about 15 per cent.”
The rise in sales has prompted the real estate industry to issue warnings, with some calling for the UK to set aside money to cover the shortfall, the FT reports.
Real estate agent Andrew Haldane told the paper: “If you’re buying a house in the north of England, the average price is going up by 20 per cent, and if you’re looking at buying in the south you’re going up 15 per%.”
He added that “you have to think that there’s going to be a massive surge in the sale of houses”.
A spokesperson for the British Association of Realtors (BAR) told the FT: “We think Brexit is a real, real, scary time for the real property industry.”
“The country is now entering a period of rapid growth in the rental market, and we’re seeing that trend accelerate across the country.”
Real estate firm Savills told the BBC that a real-estate surge would have a significant impact on the country’s property market.
“We believe there will be a significant increase in the number of new properties in the coming months as we move into a period when we see some of the largest rises in home-rental prices we’ve seen in decades,” it said.
“In terms of the growth of the rental housing market, we believe it will be the biggest one-off jump we’ve ever seen.”BAR chief executive Nick Cole told the broadcaster that it was “an absolutely massive risk to the UK property market”.
“If you want to buy a property in the next six months, you have to expect a significant spike in demand from overseas,” he said.
The government has yet to respond to the warnings.