Expats Around the World are Returning to Home to Buy Real Estate

A record 29,000 Irish citizens moved back to their homeland by April 2020. This is more than in the past 10 years. As the pandemic has grown, the trend has become even more pronounced. According to the head of Knight Frank New Homes in Ireland, Ray Palmer-Smith, more than 20% of the deals with luxury housing in Dublin over the past 12 months were concluded by Irish immigrants who want to buy a house in their homeland. The expert expects that this number will increase this year as restrictions on international travel are eased.

"Proximity to family was the main reason why many customers made the purchase, but the Irish government's response to the pandemic was also noted as a positive factor," Palmer-Smith has said.

Ireland is not the only country where there has been an increase in interest from emigrants who want to return home in the conditions of the coronacrisis. According to a report by The Economist, about 15,000 US citizens were repatriated from Asia between the beginning of the pandemic and June 2020. Knight Frank also recorded a surge in activity among emigrants who want to return home to the UK, France, Australia and New Zealand.

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"They come from all over the world," says Kate Everett-Allen, the Head of International Residential Research at Knight Frank, adding that "it depends more on distance than on location."

"Expats who are more than eight hours away from home were more likely to consider buying a property in their homeland as a second home, permanent housing or what we called a 50/50 house," she explains, referring to housing that will serve as a base in their home country, where expats can return to in the future.

According to a survey conducted by Knight Frank last summer, 64% of expats said that isolation influenced their decision to buy a property in their home country. The main reason for the return is the proximity to the family. As for the goals, Hugo Thistlethwayte, the Head of Global Residential Operations at Savills, divides European emigrants into two types: those who go abroad in their youth, and then decide to return home to educate their children, and those who stay abroad most of their lives and return to Europe in retirement.

Source: Mansion Global

Quoting conditions of Prian.info materials