Lettings experts, Goodlord, analysed an England-wide sample of 300,000 rental tenancy agreements signed between January 2017 and November 2020. The data showed a steady decline in the proportion of tenants from the EU signing leases.
Impact over 4 years
From January 2017 to November 2020 (inclusive), the proportion of EU renters in England fell from 20% to 14% of all tenants - an overall decrease of 6%. International tenants from non-EU countries also fell; from 13% to 11%. As a result, the proportion of renters with UK citizenship rose from 66% to 74%.
Decline in tenants between 2019 and 2020
By 2019, only 16% of all renters in England were from the EU. UK nationals accounted for 71% of tenants and those from non-EU countries 12%. By the end of 2020, the proportion of EU tenants had fallen by a further 2% to 14%. International residents dropped by 1% to 11% of the total. As a result, the proportion of UK nationals rose to 74%.
London sees the biggest impact on EU national numbers
This trend is even starker when looking at tenancies in London, where a large proportion of EU tenants choose to live. During 2017, the average proportion of London tenants who were originally from EU countries stood at 29%. In 2018, this dropped to 24% and then further to 22.5% in 2019. In 2020, EU tenants accounted for just 22% of London residents - a total decrease of 7%.
Over the same 4 year period, international tenants fell from 22% to 16% of the total. British nationals now account for 61% of all London tenants, up from 48% in 2017.
Tom Mundy, COO of Goodlord, comments: “There was no mass exodus of EU citizens following the Brexit vote. Instead, we’ve seen a steady but marked decrease in the number of people from the EU moving to England over the last four years. This trend has borne out across the whole of England, but particularly so in London, which had a higher number of EU tenants to start with. We saw a bump in numbers in 2018 just ahead of the two-year deadline, as those wishing to make England their home took what might have been their last chance. But, since then, each passing month has seen the number of people from Europe signing rental agreements steadily decline.”
