Property consultant FPD Savills has warned that houses at high risk from flooding may become very difficult to insure, and consequently drop 50% or more in value.
FPD Savills' views, as reported in today's Financial Times, follow esure's announcement last week that it will no longer insure those homes at higher risk.
This sparked fears of a domino effect in which other insurers would follow suit, making it almost impossible to insure flood-risk homes.
If houses at risk do become uninsurable, it will mean many people cannot buy houses as mortgage lenders tend to require insurance as a matter of course said Ruaraidh Adams-Cairns, head of residential valuations at FPDSavills.
He warned that the market needs to wake up to flooding as an issue and address it.
It is estimated that 5m people in the UK are at risk from their properties flooding.
