50% of Brit buyers are ‘leaving UK’

British people are keener than ever to make a permanent move to France with a post-Brexit survey showing that 50% of British clients are buying because they want to leave Britain.

The survey, by Leggett Immobilier, the No1 seller of French property to British clients, comes after a similar poll by Rightmove last year found just 38% of Britons were looking to move permanently.

Leggett also noted a 21% increase in property sales agreements in the first six months of 2016.

In the new August issue of The Connexion (which goes on sale as a pdf costing €3.90 tonight and in newsagents from the end of this week) we speak to leading figures in the French property market who say it is “business as usual” with people “speeding up” transactions.

In the same issue we also give the latest figures on French property values using figures from the Notaires de France – and reveal that with 830,000 sales completed in the 12 months leading up to April 2016, the property market is almost up to the levels of 2008-2009 and represents a rise of 19% on the figure for April 2015.

The Leggett survey, seen exclusively by The Connexion, was conducted following the referendum result and showed that some of the 16million who voted to ‘remain in the EU’ were now set to vote with their feet.

Covering 1,072 British people using the www.frenchestateagents.com website in the two weeks following the Brexit vote, it revealed that more than 70% had confidence in investing in French property despite the vote.

In all, 50% of those polled said they intended to make a permanent move to France, 20% intended to buy a holiday home and 2% were making an investment.

Trevor Leggett, chairman of Leggett Immobilier, said: “Despite Brexit uncertainty, it seems that the British love affair with the relaxed French lifestyle, the wonderful culture and climate and the beautiful affordable property available here remains as strong as ever.”