They used to go wild for villas by the Med and ski chalets in the Alps; now they are forking out for views of the Channel and hilly walks in Shropshire.
According to figures released this week by the English Housing Survey, the proportion of English owners of second homes who have properties in Europe has fallen again, with 60% of holiday homes located in the UK rather than outside it.
Ten years ago, the split was approximately even, with 51% of second homes located outside the UK, mainly in France or Spain.
Today, after Brexit – which stops British citizens who do not have a visa from spending more than 90 days in an EU country in any 180-day period – 60,000 people in England own second homes in France, compared with 89,000 in 2008.
Overall, less than 30% of second homes owned by people in England are in Europe, compared with 40% in 2012.
Annette de Vries, an estate agent in Monpazier, in the Dordogne, told the Times that the additional bureaucracy of Brexit had deterred many people from buying in France.
“Less British people are looking for houses than before,” she said. “The main reason is Brexit. It’s so much more difficult for British people to buy something here. They need health insurance and that’s very difficult for them.”
The newspaper reported that Sylvie Mayer, an estate agent in Huelgoat, Brittany, said: “Many Britons have left the area. Since last summer, a lot of them have sold their second homes because the paperwork got too complicated for them to spend time here.”
The government survey also shows that buying a second home in the UK is far more popular than it used to be. The figures show 520,000 households now own second homes in the UK, up from 279,000 in 2008, with the south-east and London proving the most attractive locations for second homes, followed by the Midlands and the east of England.
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The survey defines second homes as properties mainly used by owners or let to others as a holiday home, or properties occupied by their owners while they are working away from home.
The campaign group Generation Rent recently described the holiday-let sector as “out of control”. Dan Wilson Craw, the group’s acting director, told the Guardian: “It has taken homes away from locals who grew up in holiday hotspots and people who want to work in the tourist industries, making these areas unsustainable.”
