The Bexhill Property Market and The Euro 2016 Football Tournament

With the Referendum on EU membership out of the way, our households can concentrate on something European that doesn’t involve party political broadcasts or politician’s treating us all like children – the Euro 2016 Football Tournament. Bexhill is home to all different backgrounds and nationalities so if you’re not lucky enough to be jetting off to France for the UEFA Euro 2016 football tournament, have no fear! For a bit of fun (although there is a serious side to this – you know there would be with me!) I have taken a look at which European people live in Bexhill so I know who to soak up the best atmosphere with!

During my research some interesting numbers appear. Going into the Euro 2016 tournament, France were 3/1 tournament favourites, then Germany 7/2, third were Spain at odds of 11/2, then England 9/1, Italy 16/1, Poland 50/1, Romania and Wales at 100/1, Ireland at 150/1 and Northern Ireland 500/1 (although Leicester were 5000/1 at the start of last season) and we all know how that season ended!

Of the 100,727 residents of the Bexhill and Battle Constituency, of the Home Nations going into the competition, 91,894 of them are from England, 912 from Wales, 325 from Northern Ireland and 613 from Ireland, although I do feel sorry for the 1,312 Scots who didn’t get into the finals. Now interestingly, looking at the Mainland Europeans residents in the Bexhill and Battle Constituency, it might not surprise you that they make up 1.74% of the population as a whole in the Bexhill and Battle area.

However, even more fascinating, of those 1.7% European’s residents, 1.25% are from Western Europe because EU residents from Eastern Europe – i.e. the Accession Countries to the EU between 2003 to 2007 (Czech Republic, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia, Bulgaria and Romania) – make up 0.5% of the population of the Bexhill and Battle constituency.

Broken down into the relevant football teams, these are the amount of residents in the Bexhill and Battle constituency.

197 French residents

437 German residents

143 Italian residents

91 Spanish residents

173 Polish residents

44 Romanian residents

I feel sorry for the Romanian football supporters in Bexhill! So, what does this have to do with the Bexhill property market?

Quite a lot in fact. Many of these European people were economic migrants, especially those from Eastern Europe. There is no preferential treatment for council housing in Bexhill, so EU migrants have in fact increased demand for privately rented accommodation in Bexhill.

This has meant, as demand for housing in Bexhill has remained strong, Bexhill landlords have continued to buy properties to rent out to keep up with this demand. Therefore, the value of every homeowner’s property in Bexhill has been kept high because of the demand from these Bexhill landlords buying starter homes to rent out, releasing existing homeowners to move up the property ladder – benefitting everyone in the chain.

However, rents have remained relatively subdued, in Bexhill rents are only 20.1% higher than they were in 2005, not bad when you consider we have had 38.5% inflation in the UK economy as a whole over the same 11 years.

EU migration has meant existing homeowners, landlords and the economy as a whole in Bexhill (and the UK) have benefitted from better economic conditions, property prices not slumping whilst rents have been kept in check by wage inflation.

Now I wonder who will win the footy? Back to the TV!

For more thoughts on the Bexhill property market like this – visit the Bexhill Property Blog on www.bexhillpropertyblog.com

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