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. Newbury 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 I have taken a look at which European people live in Newbury 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 favourite’s, then Germany 7/2, third Spain 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).
Of the 107,491 residents of the Newbury Constituency, of the Home Nations going into the competition, 93,433 of them are from England, 1,707 from Wales, 451 from Northern Ireland and 709 from Ireland, although I do feel sorry for the 2,059 Scots who didn’t get into the finals. Now interestingly, looking at the Mainland Europeans residents in the Newbury Constituency, it might not surprise you that they make up 3.14% of the population as a whole in the Newbury area.
But what does this have to do with the Newbury property market? Quite a lot in fact. Many of these European people were economic migrants, especially those from Eastern Europe. A lot of people’s concerns over migration are exaggerated as this EU migration has acted to fill gaps in skills and labour supply during growth periods of the mid 2000’s and subsequently over the last five years in Newbury, EU migrants have done little to displace native workers. There is no preferential treatment for council housing in Newbury, so EU migrants have in fact increased demand for privately rented accommodation in Newbury.
This has meant, as demand for housing in Newbury has remained strong, Newbury landlords have continued to buy properties to rent out to keep up with this demand. Therefore, the value of every homeowner’s property in Newbury has been kept high because of the demand from these Newbury landlords buying starter homes to rent out, releasing existing homeowners to go up the property ladder – benefiting everyone in the chain.
However, rents have remained relatively subdued, in Newbury rents are only 20.1% higher than they were in 2005, not bad when you consider we have had 38.52% 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 Newbury (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 football? Certainly not England…..!
