The Stevenage Property Market: 10 Years After the Brexit Vote
When Britain voted to leave the European Union in June 2016, many experts predicted serious problems for the UK housing market. Forecasts warned of falling house prices, reduced buyer confidence and a prolonged slowdown in property transactions. Yet a decade later, the story has been very different.
When Britain voted to leave the European Union on 23rd June 2016, many predicted the UK housing market was heading for trouble.
Then Chancellor, George Osborne, warned house prices could fall by as much as 18%. Economists talked about collapsing confidence, falling transactions and a potential housing market shock. There were fears that buyers would disappear, lending would tighten and uncertainty would freeze the market for years.
For Stevenage homeowners, it was a worrying time, yet 10 years on, the Stevenage property market tells a very different story.
Before I start, I will not be discussing whether we should have left or remained in the EU, just the facts of what has happened to the property market.
Whilst the last decade has certainly not been smooth, the property market did not collapse in 2016. In fact, the past 10 years have shown just how resilient the British, and indeed Stevenage, housing market can be. And perhaps more importantly, in those years, it has changed what it means to sell, buy, rent and own a home in Stevenage.
Since that Brexit vote, homeowners have lived through:
- Three years of Brexit uncertainty
- Covid lockdowns
- The stamp duty holiday boom
- Record low mortgage rates
- The race for space and home offices
- Double digit inflation
- The Liz Truss mini-Budget mortgage shock
- Rapid interest rate rises
- How people search for property
- And the rise of social media and digital estate agency marketing
At several points during the last decade, the housing market looked as though it might genuinely seize up. Yet people in Stevenage still moved home. Families still upsized. Retirees still downsized. Landlords still bought and sold. Young couples still tried to get onto the property ladder. Life carried on. That is because property markets are not driven purely by politics or economics. They are driven by people and life events.
The headlines back in 2016 suggested Brexit itself would define the next decade of the housing market. In reality, Brexit became just one chapter in a much bigger story.
Looking at the data nationally, average UK house prices stood at £196,100 around the time of the Brexit vote. Today, they sit closer to £279,900, a rise of 42.8% Meanwhile, Stevenage homeowners have also seen local house prices move significantly over the last decade, although the journey has been far from linear.
In Stevenage, house prices have risen from £256,400 to £312,900, a rise of 22% in the last decade.
But prices alone only tell part of the story. Transaction levels matter just as much. Because a property market is only truly healthy if people are actually moving.
In the three years before Brexit in Stevenage, an average 104 homeowners moved home per month, since the vote it has been 91 homeowners per month.
And this is where the last decade becomes fascinating.
Despite all the political and economic shocks since 2016, the market repeatedly adapted. Buyers did not permanently disappear. Instead, they adjusted their expectations, borrowing power and behaviour to match changing conditions.
However, what has changed dramatically is the nature of the market itself.
The Stevenage property market of 2026 behaves very differently from the Stevenage property market of 2016.
Ten years ago, buyers had less information and fewer tools at their fingertips. Most homeowners relied heavily on estate agents for market knowledge. Rightmove existed, of course, but buyers were not glued to instant property alerts, local Facebook groups, TikTok property videos and daily housing headlines in the way they are today.
Today’s buyers are permanently connected. They can compare dozens of Stevenage homes within seconds. They can track price reductions in real time. They can check sold prices, mortgage rates and local market trends before even stepping foot through the front door.
Also, Stevenage buyers now have more choice, which means they can afford to be more selective. That has made the market more competitive and, in many cases, less forgiving for overpriced homes. To give some context to this…
In June 2016, there were 668 Stevenage homes for sale on Brexit vote day, today it is 929.
(Stevenage – SG1/2).
More choice, more competition and so in simple terms, Stevenage homes no longer “sell themselves”.
The Stevenage properties that tend to perform best today are usually the ones that are marketed strongly online with professional photography and most importantly, priced realistically from day one. Why? Because buyers now know instantly when a property looks overpriced compared to similar homes nearby.
Another huge change over the last decade has been the growing importance of lifestyle.
Covid and working from home accelerated trends that were already beginning after Brexit. For some buyers, Stevenage increasingly became a strategic lifestyle decision, offering more space and value for money than larger cities, whilst still benefiting from strong rail links to London.
For many households, priorities shifted:
- More space
- Home offices
- Gardens
- Quality of life
- Commute flexibility
They became more important than simply living close to an office five days a week.
At the same time, affordability pressures have intensified for many local buyers. Higher house prices, rising rents and stricter mortgage affordability tests have created major challenges, especially for younger households trying to buy their first home.
Rents, nationally, have risen sharply since 2016. Average UK rents have increased from around £1,238 pcm in 2016 to over £1,884 pcm today.
The average rent in Stevenage has risen from £1,054 pcm to £1,377 pcm in the last 10 years.
Landlords themselves have also faced wave after wave of taxation and regulatory changes during the last decade. In truth, many buy-to-let investors would probably argue that government housing policy has had a far greater impact on the rental market than Brexit itself.
And perhaps that is the biggest lesson from the last 10 years.
When Britain voted for Brexit in 2016, many assumed politics alone would shape the future of the housing market. Instead, the Stevenage property market was transformed by a combination of economics, technology, lifestyle change, digital transparency and shifting buyer behaviour.
The market did not stand still. It evolved. Today’s Stevenage property market is faster, noisier, more transparent and more competitive than the one homeowners knew on referendum day in June 2016. Yet despite all the uncertainty, all the headlines and all the economic turbulence, one thing has remained remarkably consistent.
People still want to move home.