UK house prices will not grow in 2017 amid Brexit uncertainty, Savills says

UK house price growth will come to a halt in 2017 after four years of increases, according to Savills, amid the uncertainty caused by the UK's decision to leave the European Union (EU).

But the real-estate firm also said some regions could buck the national trend. Savills expects house prices in the south of England outside of London to grow in 2017, while the north of England, Wales and Scotland would see house prices decline.

The research follows a Nationwide report that house prices in the UK had ended a 15-month growth run in October amid Brexit uncertainty. The mortgage lender said the average UK house price was unchanged in October when compared to September.

Savills predicts UK house prices to be flat on average in 2017, grow by 2% in 2018, by 5.5% in 2019, by 3% in 2020 and by 2% in 2021. Over the five years, house prices will grow by 13.1%.

"A realisation that Brexit feeds into the wider economy, people's prospects for earnings, people's prospects for employment and then that beginning to filter through into the hard economic reality ... is likely to make buyers more cautious," Lucian Cook, Savills' UK head of residential research, told Reuters.

Growth would be slower in London, where price rises in recent years have outperformed the broader UK average. Savills said that the average house price in the UK capital, which was £481,000 ($599,560) in August, could increase by £52,000 in five years, growth of around 10.8%.

Savills said Brexit uncertainty would also lead to a decline in the total number of residential property transactions, forecasting a 16% fall to just over one million in 2017.

The firm also expects rents across the country to increase faster than house prices over the next five years, rising 19% by 2021. The gap between growth in house prices and rent could be more in certain locations such as London, Savills added. It forecasts rents will rise by 24.5% in the UK capital over this five-year period.