The Tories win and what it means for the expat property market

Property commentators have welcomed the landslide Conservative election victory for bringing the UK closer to ending the Brexit uncertainty that has stifled transactions for so long.

Sterling surged against the dollar and the euro as the outcome of the election became clear and the FTSE 100 began to climb when the market opened.

In the Conservative Party manifesto, Prime Minister Boris Johnson had promised to push ahead with the target of building 300,000 new homes a year by the mid-2020s, reforming leasehold and abolishing Section 21 “no-fault” evictions. Johnson also pledged to encourage a new market in long-term fixed rate mortgages, continue supporting Right to Buy and look for new ways to support home buyers when the Help to Buy scheme comes to an end in 2023.

The result will, for the time being, end the uncertainty of a no-deal Brexit and pave the way for the release of some of the pent-up demand that has built in property markets in recent years. The extent to which this translates into transaction activity in the short-term will depend on the size of the pricing expectation gap between buyers and sellers. Supply is likely to rise as political uncertainty recedes and private and public spending stimulate the UK economy. 

It is good to have certainty and a party with a clear mandate

Although there is talk of a potential extra 3% stamp duty for foreign buyers as detailed in the Conservative manifesto, until that time we will see the property market return to some sort of normality with the uncertainty of Brexit having been mitigated.

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