If the UK leaves the European Union there is a risk that the move could have a long lasting and damaging effect on the country’s residential property markets, according to a new report by the National Association of Estate Agents (NAEA) and the Association of Residential Letting Agents (ARLA) compiled with the Centre for Economics and Business Research (Cebr).

It could affect current plans to build hundreds of thousands of new homes and compromise London’s position as a safe haven for property investment.

The report highlights a number of short and long term implications potentially arising from the upcoming vote. While the impact Brexit will have on migration policies is unconfirmed, imposing greater restrictions on foreign workers coming into the UK may compromise the UK’s ability to build homes with the Government having pledged to build 1m new homes by 2020.

It points out that construction based jobs are decreasing in popularity among UK nationals, and as 5% of current construction workers were born in other EU countries and workers from the EU are becoming more important than ever in filling the skills gap to boost housing stock.