How EU Migration has influenced the M9 Property Market

The argument of migration and what it does, or doesn’t do, for the country’s economic wellbeing is something that has seems to be on everyones lips in the run up to the referendum. In my article today, I want to talk about what it EU Migration has done for the M9 Property Market.

With 971,144 EU Citizens coming to the UK between 2001 and 2011,the housing market as a whole is undoubtedly affected by migration. But it has been the private rented housing sector, especially in those areas where migrants come together, that is affected the most.  Indeed, I have seen that many EU migrants often compete for such housing not with UK tenants but with other EU migrants. In 2001, 3.68 million rented a property from a landlord in the UK.  Ten years later in 2011, whilst EU migration added an additional 676,091 people renting a property from a landlord, there were actually an additional 4.14 million people who became tenants and were not EU migrants, but predominately British!

As a landlord, it is really important to gauge the potential demand for your rental property, especially if you are a landlord who buys property in areas popular with the Eastern European EU migrants.  To gauge the level of EU migration (and thus demand), one of the best ways to calculate the growth of migrants is to calculate the number of people who ask for a National Insurance number (which EU members are able to obtain).

In Moston, migration has risen over the last few years. For example, in 2007 there were 1,237 migrant national Insurance cards (NIC) issued and the year after in 2008, 1,094 NIC cards were issued. However, in 2014, this increased slightly to 1,423 NIC’s. However, if the pattern of other migrations since WW2 continues, over time there will be an increasing demand for owner occupied property, which may affect the market in certain areas of high migrant concentration. On the other hand, over time some households move into the larger housing market, reducing concentrations and pressures.

In essence, migration has affected the M9 property market; it couldn’t fail to because of the additional 9,353 working age migrants that have moved into the M9 postcode area since 2005. However, it has not been the main influence on the market. Property values in and around M9 today are 34.49% higher than they were in 2005. According to the Office of National Statistics, rents for tenants in the North West have only grown on average by 0.95% a year since 2005 .... I would say if it wasn’t for the migrants, we would be in a far worse position when it came to the M9 property market. This was backed up by the then Home Secretary Theresa May back in 2012 - more than a third of all new housing demand in Britain is caused by inward migration and there is evidence that without the demand caused by such immigration, house prices would be 10% lower over a 20 year period.