Thursday 19 January 2017 11:36 am

Here’s what will happen to house prices if markets crash this year

This year may have been record-breaking for the FTSE 100 so far – but the year is yet young, and with Brexit negotiations and Donald Trump's presidency still to come, a lot could go wrong.

So online estate agent Emoov has helpfully donned its tinfoil hat and worked out what could happen to UK house prices if there is a 2008-style market apocalypse.

The bad news is, homes in the capital could stand to lose £850 in value a week in the event of another financial crisis. The good news? Er, there is no good news.

Emoov modelled its data on the 21 months between the end of 2007 and the beginning of 2009, when the previous financial crisis was at its worst.

It applied the same percentage decrease to the current average house price – and found £36,393, or 16.7 per cent, could be wiped off the average UK house price.

The largest decrease will take place in the South East, where house prices stand to fall 17.6 per cent, or £55,146. That's followed by the East of England, where prices fell 17.4 per cent in the previous crisis – which today could be equivalent to £48,432.

In the capital, meanwhile, prices fell 16.3 per cent last time – which would now be equivalent to a drop in value of £78,267.

“Although the UK property market as a whole is faring very well, there are signs that the London market, particularly the prime central end, is running out of steam heading into 2017," said Emoov chief executive Russell Quirk.

"Even so, it is unlikely that we will witness a market crash as monumental as the one we experienced a decade ago, so homeowners should rest assured that this research acts as a warning of what the worst case scenario might look like with London homeowners losing £858 a week in property value." Phew.