Pandemic sees return of expats to UK despite travel restrictions

With a series of global lockdowns since the start of the pandemic and stringent travel restrictions, you might naturally think sales to expats returning to the UK would have fallen over the last year and a half.

However, the number of exchanges involving returning UK expats in the 18 months since the market reopened last May was up by 25% in South East England compared with the 18 months before the UK’s first lockdown.

In the Home Counties, which includes locations like Elmbridge in Surrey and Henley-on-Thames in Oxfordshire, exchanges involving expats increased by 22% over the same period, Knight Frank data shows.

Overall, the number of sales outside of the capital to expats was unchanged between the two periods, despite the tighter travel rules.

“Back in March 2020, when the market and UK economy was effectively shut down, it was hard to see what would come next domestically let alone for buyers based overseas,” said Nigel Mitchell, regional partner for the South East at Knight Frank.

“However, the pandemic and associated travel restrictions has made the world feel a lot bigger in the 18 months since, and many expats have been extremely motivated to return home to be closer to either family or their ancestral roots despite the barriers they’ve had to overcome,” Nigel added.

Knight Frank’s Edinburgh, Guildford, Cobham, Tunbridge Wells and Weybridge offices have handled the most sales involving expats over the last 18 months, with the spa locations of Cheltenham and Bath also popular.

UK citizens returning from the US, Hong Kong and China have been most prevalent, while South Africa, the UAE and Switzerland were other common countries from which UK citizens returned.

“We sold a property in St Andrews recently to a couple based in Australia with family roots in Scotland. There’s been a realisation since Covid that being close to home is more important,” said Tom Stewart-Moore, head of Knight Frank’s rural business in Scotland, which has also seen an increase in English buyers making a home north of the border since the pandemic.