U. K. Prime Country Home Prices Still Impacted by Brexit in Late 2019

According to international real estate consultant Knight Frank, prime regional country house prices in the United Kingdom were unchanged in the final three months of 2019, taking the annual change in values to -0.8%. Prices have been flat or declining for the past three years. Political uncertainty continues to be the biggest single constraint on the market, agents note. The run-up to the general election in December added to this, with some buyers putting deals on hold while awaiting the result and some vendors holding off bringing properties to market. That said, overall demand has remained strong albeit price-sensitive. The average number of new prospective buyers registering their interest in purchasing a property per Knight Frank office was 9% higher in the 11 months to November 2019 compared with the same period last year, for example.
The certainty afforded by the outcome of the election should result in some of this pent-up demand being released into the market. The extent to which this translates into transactions in the short-term will depend on the size of the pricing expectation gap between buyers and sellers.