Half of all Britons hold hopes of retiring abroad

Permalink: Half of all Britons hold hopes of retiring abroad
by Gill Montia

Latest research from property website, HotProperty.co.uk, indicates that around half of the population of the UK would prefer to spend their latter years abroad.

Forty-seven per cent of respondents to the survey said they would opt to spend their retirement years in a warmer climate, given the chance.

Shawn Luetchens, managing director of HotPropert, comments: “With the property market a little shaky and living costs in the UK continually rising it is perhaps not surprising that the majority of Brits would rather retire overseas than move within the UK.”

Of those resigned to autumnal years in the UK, 24% hope to be heading for the coast, and some 18.5% will be be looking for property in the countryside. Only 10.5% said that retiring to a city was the preferred option.

According to figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) approximately 400,000 long-term migrants left the UK in 2006. Just over half of this number (207,000) were British citizens

The level of emigration was the highest recorded by the ONS since 1991, and around 41,000 higher than the estimate for 2005.