FREQUENCY OF MOVING HOUSE

In affluent countries most people entering retirement find their income and physical capabilities are reduced. These changes alter housing requirements and preferences. Men who attain 85 years of age on average move 1.06 times after their 55th birthday and women 1.14 times. While most are local moves, a minority are long-distance changes.

Since the 1920s retirement migrations have become commonplace and have passed through several phases. During the 1930s and 1950s, railway-influenced holiday destinations guided retirement moves from the UK’s large cities to numerous resorts in Devon, Dorset, Somerset, Sussex, Kent, Essex, Lancashire, Yorkshire and North Wales. From the 1960s the destinations favoured unspoilt market towns and well-serviced villages in Dorset, the Cotswolds, Central Wales and most recently to Lincolnshire and Yorkshire. In the 1990s the choice was resort and rural settings in France, Spain and other southern European countries.

Some reasons for staying put

If you enjoy your home, it fits your needs and you can afford it, then why move? If you stay in a place where you have friends, neighbours and children living close by and you know your way around, then why move? If the facilities and services are good, then why move? After all, moving is a lot of trouble and expense.

Some reasons for moving

If your house is too big, too expensive, or the capital tied up in it could provide income if invested, then consider moving. If the area is deteriorating or the community does not offer social, cultural and physical activities and lacks services, then consider moving. If your health would benefit from warm sunshine, then move. If your children and friends have moved away, then why stay?

Who buys a home abroad?

A wide range of people buy a home in the sun, particularly if it is near an airport, faces the sea or a golf course and the area has plenty of facilities. If it is a permanent retirement home then the average profile is of a couple, mid-fifties and upwards, whose children have flown the nest. At least one partner will be an extrovert capable of dealing with the upheaval and change, so together they can look forward to their golden years with some enthusiasm. The responsibilities of children, grandchildren and elderly parents are issues that have been dealt with.

Moving abroad is a challenge, an adventure, a new culture and a different lifestyle. As life expectancy increases moving abroad is now commonplace. In the last 20 years the number of retirees living abroad has doubled. However the number of people from the UK retiring to Spain has doubled in the last ten years.

Most people who retire abroad are fully fit, active and in possession of all their faculties. Unfortunately as age increases health may fail and we become partly dependant or totally dependant on partners, friends, and special housing or welfare facilities. Care for the elderly in Spain falls upon the family unit with sheltered housing rare.

INTERNATIONAL PASSENGER SURVEY

The UK International Passenger Survey samples between 0.1% and 5% of the passengers that enter or leave through seaports, airports and the Channel Tunnel. It establishes the age, sex and citizenship of a traveller, and asks both emigrants and immigrants whether they are moving for work or study. Unfortunately, neither retiring abroad nor joining a family abroad is identified.

Since 1980 on average 11,300 men and 6,600 women in their late working years (45–59 years for women, and 45–64 years for men) have emigrated from the UK each year. In this age group the main categories are:

• UK citizens moving to another country for work;
• Non-UK citizens returning to their countries of origin or moving elsewhere;
• UK citizens retiring early abroad.

There have been sharp annual fluctuations in the total number of emigrants. The total increased during the mid-1980s to 23,000 but in 1988 the housing market boom in southern England collapsed and the number of emigrants decreased. There was another emigration peak in 1993. The following three years’ total hover around 17,000 and in 1999 it rose sharply to 24,500.

Since 1980 the annual average number of departures from the UK of people of state pensionable age (60 and above for women and 65 and above for men) has been 2,320 men and 4,660 women. The numbers have a high female-to-male ratio; the principal explanation being that many of the emigrants are widowed, divorced or single women, leaving to live with or near relatives and friends who settled abroad earlier.

STATISTICS FROM NEWCASTLE

The Pensions and Overseas Benefits Directorate in the UK, based at Newcastle, record a second source of information on the number of people living abroad. Beneficiaries fall into three categories: those receiving state pensions, widows’ benefits and ‘unclassified’.

It is well known the British population in various Mediterranean locations is not clearly differentiated between tourists, seasonal residents, temporary residents and permanent residents. It is difficult for these categories to correspond tidily with legal and administrative statuses such as resident foreigner or non-resident foreigner. Further confusion arises as many people retain a property and bank account in the UK, finding it convenient to maintain a base back home.

There has been a substantial increase in the number of overseas state pensioners. Starting at a quarter of a million in 1981 they have now more than doubled at an annual growth rate of 8.95%. Growth was high at 10% during 1988–89 at the end of the ‘Lawson boom’ when the exceptional inflation in UK house prices fuelled a high rate of overseas property purchases. During the 1990s growth moderated to 3.5% per annum.

The average age of overseas pensioners is younger than the corresponding home population. The differential is more pronounced among women. Younger male overseas pensioners (aged 65–74 years) outnumbered the older (75+ years) by 60%, compared with 46% in the 1999 home population. Among women the younger outnumbered the older by 48%.

The ratio of women to men pensioners resident abroad was 1.26, whereas according to the 1999 mid-year estimates, the ratio in the UK resident population was 1.42.

British pensioners receive their state benefits in more than 200 countries. Of the 814,000 who receive their pension abroad, nearly a quarter live in Australia and a substantial number in the USA, the Irish Republic and Canada. Surprisingly these four countries account for nearly two-thirds of the total. But the countries with high growth rates are southern European countries with Sun Belt retirement locations such as Spain, France, and Italy, neighbours of the UK who have strong economic, social and working links. The highest rates of increase during 1994 to 1999 were Italy, Spain, France and the USA.

MORE THAN PLEASANT AMENITIES

Contrary to a widespread view, British and other overseas-retired populations are not predominantly composed of those who work and live in their own countries until their late fifties or sixties and then undertake a pleasant and agreeable move to a sunny location on the Spanish Costas. The path to overseas retirement involves greater consideration than a move to the sun-drenched resorts.

Widespread multinational processes and specific historical factors are involved. The growth rate in each destination country is subject to the vagaries of political events, local economics and, in some cases, the legacies of a military and imperial past.

Other people return to the ‘old country’, a sequel to the extensive and increasingly global labour migrations that began in the 1950s. A large numbers of British pensioners are evident in the Republic of Ireland.

The substantial number of UK pensioners in Germany reflects the British population’s changing overseas employment and family connections through higher education, skilled labour demand, armed forces and temporary work placements. When a country has numerous opportunities for retirees to join their family and has an attractive environment, then migration is obviously high; as is the case with the Mediterranean countries.

While the number of older migrants may be few in comparison to the number of economic migrants and political refugees, there is huge potential for growth as ageing, the falling cost of international air travel, and rising affluence all combine to increase the number of amenity seeking migrants.