Brexit delay stalls London property market: continued uncertainty causes biggest house price drop in almost a decade

London house prices fell at their fastest rate for almost a decade in January wiping more than £7,500 off the average value of a home.

The capital’s property market was down by 1.6 per cent at the start of the year, the biggest annual fall since September 2009 when it began bouncing back from the slump that followed the financial crisis.

The average price of a London home stood at £472,230 in January down from £479,780 a year previously, according to figures today from the Land Registry.

It was the 11th month in a row that prices were down year on year.

There were particularly heavy falls in Westminster, where prices slumped 14 per cent, and Camden where they were 8.3 per cent lower.

Ewen Bunting, head of sales at estate agents James Pendleton, said: “No one was expecting fireworks after New Year while the clock runs down on Brexit but things appear to be coming to a head rather earlier than we had initially expected.”

There was also yet another fall in the number of sales with just 6,888 recorded in November — the most recent month for which figures are available — down nearly 10 per cent on the previous year.

Economists said the Brexit uncertainty that has hung over the property market since the summer of 2016 would continue to depress prices if there is a delay to Britain’s departure from the European Union.