Land Registry statistics say house prices in East Devon increased by 18.4 per cent in the two-and-a-half-years since the Brexit referendum

The growth of house prices since the Brexit referendum has bucked the national and regional trend, statistics show.

In the two-and-a-half years before the UK voted to leave the EU, the average house price went up by 9.1 per cent from £251,778 to £303,162, Land Registry figures show.

In the same time period after the vote, prices went up by 18.4 per cent.

This is in contrast the regional and national picture.

House prices in the South West increased by 17.7 per cent in the two-and-a-half years before the referendum but only grew by 7.7 per cent in the same period after the vote.

This downward trend is matched nationally, where property prices prior to the referendum grew by 19.6 per cent and in the 30 months after, growth fell to 6.1 per cent.

The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) says that Brexit uncertainty, a drop in foreign investment and stretched affordability have all played their part in stunting growth.

The number of properties sold in East Devon in 2018 showed a slowdown in the regional market.

The data, available to the end of November, shows that 2,557 properties were sold over the 11 months.

It was a 13.1 per cent drop on the number of sales in the same period in 2017 – across the UK, sales dropped by 5.5 per cent.

Simon Rubinson, RICS’s chief economist, said a combination of factors meant that all regions of the UK were being affected.

He said: “There are affordability issues in parts of the country, particularly in London and the South East.

“Taxation is also a big issue – if you look at what has happened in terms of the buy-to-let market, the returns are now relatively limited.

“But when we asked our members for our last survey, despite attempting to get them away from Brexit, they said Brexit uncertainty was the main factor.”

Mr Rubinson warned that a deal for Britain’s departure from the EU was unlikely to be the end of uncertainty for the housing market, or lead to a sudden rise in prices.

But, he added, for many younger buyers looking to get on the property ladder, this may not be such a bad thing.