London's housing market rose just nine per cent from the Brexit referendum to the first quarter of 2026, while the UK as a whole gained 40 per cent. That gap is the clearest sign that the capital lost momentum after June 23, 2016, when political uncertainty began to weigh on buyers and developers.
Lucian Cook of Savills said: "You will struggle to find a period of greater disruption to the housing and development markets". He added: "The political turmoil before and after the vote was a drag on buyer confidence. This was most acute in London as a cosmopolitan capital city."
London's 92% boom ended
92 per cent was the rise in London house prices from 2006 to 2016, compared with 29 per cent nationally. The market that had outpaced the UK before the vote then lost pace sharply after it, with London values up only nine per cent from 2016 to the first quarter of 2026.
15 per cent was how much London's average house price had risen in the year to March 2016, according to Savills. By the 12 months to May 2019, that annual change had slipped to a 3 per cent fall. The shift points to a market that moved from expansion into stall speed in the years after the referendum.
Tom Bill on 2017 to 2019
2017 to 2019 brought a period of stagnation, according to Tom Bill of Knight Frank, as Theresa May's government remained in a precarious position. That political backdrop fed into weaker sales and a slower release of new homes, especially where buyers were already cautious about committing.
Tony Mulhall of RICS said: "Brexit increased political and economic uncertainty that made buyers press pause, but it also altered the trajectory of the London housing market". In practice, that meant slower sales in leafy London villages, bigger price falls in the most desirable central neighbourhoods, and a dramatic decline in new-build homes for first-time buyers and social tenants.
£150,000 deposits in London
12 times earnings is where London house prices now sit, and the average deposit for a first-time buyer is close to £150,000. That leaves buyers facing a market that has risen less than the UK average since 2016, yet is still far harder to enter than before the Brexit referendum.
A third of children live in poverty after housing costs, and record numbers of people are housed in unsuitable temporary accommodation. For buyers, investors and renters in London, the next question is not whether the post-Brexit slowdown happened, but how a market can grow so little and still stay so unaffordable.
