More Brits choose to live abroad
Flytolet.co.uk, 16 December 2006
Around one in 10 Brits now live overseas, research from the Institute for Public Policy Research suggests.
IPPR found that more than 198,000 British nationals moved overseas last year, bringing the total number living abroad to more than 5.5m. They have been encouraged to do so by being able to cash in on a strong economy and relatively high UK property prices.
Britain already has more people living abroad than almost any other country. Even so, another 1m Brits will join their ranks over the next five years, according to the research body.
Some 75 per cent of those living abroad are in just 10 countries. Australia (1.3m) is the most popular, followed by Spain (760,000), the USA (680,000), Canada (600,000), Ireland (290,000), New Zealand (215,000), South Africa (212,000), France (200,000),
Germany (115,000), and Cyprus (59,000). However, there are 41 countries with more than 10,000 Brits in residence, and 71 countries with more than 1,000.
The main reason given for emigrating by Brits living abroad permanently was to pursue professional or educational opportunities (33.8 per cent), to improve their lifestyle or enjoy a better climate (24.9 per cent), or for family or personal reasons (18.5 per cent). Cost of living (4.1 per cent barely featured).
However, for those considering emigrating, the main attractions were a better quality of life (37 per cent), better weather (32 per cent), and a more reasonable cost of living (24 per cent).
‘A healthy economy at home, especially when house prices are buoyant and the pound is strong, makes it easier to up sticks and move abroad’, said IPPR associate director Danny Sriskandarajah. ‘From Australia to Zambia, Brits are looking for a better job, a better quality of life or a sunny retirement. Very few leave because they think the country has “gone to the dogs”.
‘Britain does not just have the world's leading financial centre and the busiest international airport but is truly at the crossroads of the global movement of people. But our research also shows that for some emigrants, being ill prepared or not knowing the local language can cloud their experience of a place in the sun’.
Inability to speak the local language was identified as one of the biggest barriers to settling into an overseas community. Fewer than one in four retired Brits living in the Costa del Sol speaks Spanish, but three in four retired Brits living in Tuscany speak Italian. Brits in countries like Spain and Saudi Arabia also tend to flock together, in contrast to countries like Australia and the USA where they tend to be more dispersed across the country.
Foreign exchange specialist HIFX said the findings echoed its own. ‘Australia, New Zealand and Canada, all of which feature in the top ten places for Brits to emigrate to, are facing a shortage of home grown skilled workers so they are marketing themselves as attractive propositions to UK workers who may be looking for a better work/life balance for their family or simply just sunnier climes’, said HIFX marketing director Mark Bodega.
With the pound so strong, people planning to move abroad, whether in the next six months, or in two years time, and who will be transferring all their UK wealth abroad should consider taking out a ‘forward contract’, the firm suggested. ‘In essence this means people can buy their currency as soon as they start the emigration process and pay for it later (once they have sold their UK house for example). By doing this consumers are completely protected from exchange rate movements as they have ‘locked in’ the exchange rate at the time of setting the contract’.
The latest HIFX Global Property Hot Spots report, just published, reported a strong resurgence of interest in France and Spain. In November France and Spain have made up just over half (55 per cent) of all HIFX’s currency transactions for buying property abroad while enquiries relating to property purchases Bulgaria, Turkey and Morocco declined. Those for Cyprus, Cape Verde and Dubai remained on an even keel.
'Despite a fair amount of dabbling by investors in some more exotic locations, old time favourites France and Spain are still the first choice for British buyers looking for a holiday home or retirement home’, said Bodega. '
With the markets in both countries having slowed down over the last 12 months, we are seeing some really good bargains coming up, and it seems that many canny Brits have also spotted this and are beginning to return to these traditional overseas markets in increasing numbers’.
Office of National Statistics figures reported in November tally with the IPPR findings in that they put the number of UK citizens leaving to live abroad last year at 198,000, almost 4,000 a week. Of these, a fifth went to Australia, the most preferred destination, although Spain and France were next on the list.
The number of British citizens emigrating each year had increased by about 50,000 a year over the last 10 years, with more than 1m leaving in the last six years alone, said National Statistics.