Our new Global Moving Trends report has revealed that triggering article 50 has prompted a huge influx in British expats and European nationals choosing to come to Britain before the EU border legislation changes post-Brexit.

The trend for people moving to the UK seems to have started as soon as the referendum campaigning kicked off back in June. Movehub’s data shows that moves to the UK from key European countries increased dramatically in the run up to the EU referendum vote as people thought hard about what the outcome would be.

In June 2016 the number of people wanting to move to Britain from Spain and Germany jumped by a staggering 108% and 157% respectively.

When looking at the figures between June and July in 2016, Movehub’s analysis showed an uplift of 170% in total moves to the UK following the EU referendum election results. Movehub closely monitored movement to and from the UK between August 2016 to April 2017 to gauge whether the spike was a knee-jerk reaction to the result or if it was the start of a bigger, long-term trend.

A closer look at the data

When looking at overall moves to the UK in the 2016-2017 financial year, Movehub’s data revealed that nearly 45% of total moving requests were from European countries, with some of the biggest hikes coming from Finland (66%), Spain (32%), Germany (19%) and Norway (22%).

The research suggests that two elements are contributing to these hikes, with British expats choosing to come back to the UK from popular communities in Spain amid fears for their legal rights to live and work in Europe, and European nationals rushing to take advantage of being able to move to Britain before Brexit makes it harder to do so.