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18 May 2016

An audience poll, taken at today’s Financial Services Expo (FSE) Manchester, the premier exhibition for the financial services industry in the North of England, has suggested that a large majority of intermediaries believe a Leave Vote at next month’s EU Referendum will have a negative impact on the UK economy.

When asked what kind of impact a vote to leave would have, 82% of audience members answered ‘negative’. John Malone, Chairman of Front Events, also suggested that the biggest threat to the economy over Q2 and Q3 this year would be a ‘Brexit’.

Malone said:

“I believe a Vote to Leave next month would create an enormous amount of confusion in the markets and would have a major impact not just on the City but also on many businesses throughout the UK. I also don’t believe that this would just impact the UK over the next couple of quarters but will run for a number of years to come.”

Simon Cradock, Corporate Account Manager at Nationwide for Intermediaries and The Mortgage Works, agreed that the industry seems to want the UK stay in the EU.

In his presentation on the current state of the economy, and the UK housing and mortgage markets, Cradock suggested the increased number of purchase transactions completed during Q1, prior to the introduction of the stamp duty increase deadline, should have normalised by July this year.

He also urged the industry to understand the large number of cash purchases that had taken place during that period.

Simon Cradock, Nationwide, commented:

“It’s been suggested that of the 60,000 transactions [which went through in March] which were purely down to the increase in stamp duty, 28,000 of those were cash purchases. We wait to see whether they will be flipped to remortgage over the next six months. Remortgaging is certainly an area that continues to grow.”

Cradock also said the low level of property supply coming onto the market suggests there will be continued upward pressure on price growth. He cited the recent figures from RICS which show that in 2016 there are only a quarter of properties available, when compared to the early 1990s.

Further details on Financial Services Expo Manchester are available here: http://www.financialservicesexpo.co.uk/fse-manchester/