So all
cards up in the air! A general election will be on the books, but one thing is
for sure ... whoever gets the job to deal with Brexit has a hard job on their
hands (I'm just glad its not me!) As it currently stands, by not assuring the
rights of EU citizens in the UK, Theresa May has squandered an opportunity to
give peace of mind to our EU co-workers working and living in Huddersfield (and
the rest of the UK). No.10 Downing
Street’s point of view is that in promising the rights of EU citizens in the
UK, it will postpone the same guarantee to the 1.5 million UK citizens living
in the other nations of the EU.
Putting aside the politics for one
second, the simple fact is now Article 50 has been triggered, we have two years
to make a deal with the EU; otherwise it will be a ‘hard Brexit’. Now you might
not think a hard Brexit will affect you in your home in Huddersfield ... but
nothing could be further from the truth.
Of the 416,840 people who are
resident in the Kirklees Metropolitan Borough Council area, 371,929 were born
in the UK, 4,594 were born in EU countries from West Europe and 4,078 were born
in EU countries from the former Soviet States in East Europe (the rest coming
from other countries around the world).
The rights
of these EU citizens living in the Huddersfield area are not guaranteed and
will now be part of the negotiation with Europe. It is true a lot of our EU
next door neighbours in Huddersfield will have acquired rights relating to the
right to live, to work, to own a business, to possess a property, the right to
access health and education services and the right to remain in a UK after
retirement… yet those acquired rights are up for negotiation in the next two
years.
So, what
would a hard Brexit do to the Huddersfield property market?
Well a hard
Brexit could mean the nuclear option when it came to the Huddersfield housing
market. It could mean that every EU citizen would have to leave the UK.
In the Kirklees
Metropolitan Borough area, 2,867 of the 4,594 Western European EU citizens own
their own home and (so they would all need to be sold) and 2,537 of the 4,078 Eastern
European EU citizens rent a property, so again all those rental properties
would all come on the market at the same time.
Hard Brexit
and mass EU Migration would mean c. 2,700 properties being dumped onto the
housing market in a short period of time, meaning there would be a massive drop
in Huddersfield property values and rents, causing negative equity for
thousands of Huddersfield homeowners and many buy-to-let landlords would be out
of pocket.
While there
is no certainty as to what the future will hold, both UK expats in the EU and
EU citizens in the UK rights will no longer be guaranteed and will be subject
to bilateral renegotiation.
All I ask is
that the politicians are sensible with each other in the negotiations. A lot of
the success of the Huddersfield (and UK) property market has been built on high
levels of homeownership and more recently in the last 10/15 years, a growth of
the rental sector with lots of demand from Eastern Europeans coming to Huddersfield
(and the surrounding area) to get work and provide for their families. Many Huddersfield
people have invested their life savings into buying a buy to let property.
Much will
depend on what is politically realistic. Unilateral knee-jerk reactions and measures
caused by a hard Brexit would not only likely cause major disruption or
suffering to the 3 million EU citizens living in the UK, but also everyone who
owns property in the UK ... politics aside - a hard Brexit is in no one’s
interests.
For more thoughts on the Huddersfield Property market – please visit the Huddersfield Property Blog https://huddersfieldproperty.blogspot.co.uk/
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