Young professionals in the UK looking to move abroad up by 33% as Brexit deadline approaches

• Research shows an increase of 33% in young professionals in the UK searching for accommodation in Europe
• The top three destinations young professionals are looking to relocate to include Munich, Geneva, and Helsinki
• Searches for accommodation go up as Google searches for “Brexit” spike

Rotterdam, February 26, 2019 – Research from HousingAnywhere, the leading booking platform for mid- to long term accommodation, shows an increase of 33% in searches for housing in Europe by young professionals based in the UK in December to February compared to previous months.

HousingAnywhere analyzed search volumes from the UK to shed light on the impact of the upcoming Brexit on young professionals’ accommodation needs. Although it’s not yet clear what the impact of Brexit will be for these young professionals, the results of the research indicate that possible post-Brexit scenarios are prompting young professionals to consider leaving the UK for Europe.

The popular destinations in Europe currently most searched for are Munich, with an increase of +289%, whilst Geneva went up +253%, and the city of Helsinki saw an increase in searches for accommodation with +191% compared to previous months.

Top searched for cities in Europe from the UK:

Google searches for Brexit spike

The research also shows that as Google searches for ‘’Brexit’’ spiked on three occasions over the past two months, so did the traffic of UK users searching on the HousingAnywhere platform for accommodation in mainland Europe.

Djordy Seelmann, CEO HousingAnywhere, comments:

It goes without saying that the ripple effects of the UK referendum have been unprecedented, and more is still to come. Our research shows that the uncertain outlook of a post-Brexit UK is causing young professionals to already look for accommodation in Europe. This, combined with the Google searches for the term “Brexit”, indicates that the speculative outlook of a post-Brexit scenario is leading to young professionals considering more stable alternatives to living in the UK.

Google Trend Chart displaying the search interest for the term ‘Brexit’ in the past year

Consequences of Brexit for European rental market

Should these young professionals follow through and leave the UK, the average rental price for accommodation will be much lower compared to the well-known expense of London. For an apartment in Munich the average rental price is around €1300,- a month, for Amsterdam around €1500,-, and in Brussels, rental prices are the cheapest of sought-after cities, with around €900,- a month for an apartment. Seelmann:

Some European cities have already reported their ongoing talks with UK-based companies looking to relocate their headquarters to Europe. We cannot predict how many young professionals will actually follow through with this platform trend and act on their search behavior, but I think we can safely conclude that these sought-after cities must prepare for all eventualities, regardless of ongoing political negotiations. We’re seeing rents increase in these cities year upon year; in Berlin, for example, we have witnessed medium rent rise by 4.64% in Q4 2018, compared to the preceding year. I expect, as a result of Brexit, more pressure will fall on these cities and their already strained rental markets.

When examining the locations of the searches, the data revealed that the majority of UK users in the past two months were coming from London (45.5%). In second place, and by some distance, was Manchester (2.2%), followed closely by Birmingham (2.0%).

Search data of the HousingAnywhere platform was analyzed for the period from December 1st, 2018 until February 1st, 2019, for the age group of 25 to 34 years old.

For more information on the research, read our blog 'Brexit is Wasted on the Young'.

About HousingAnywhere

HousingAnywhere is the world's largest housing platform for international students and young professionals with over 50,000 active advertisements and over 5 million users in over 60 countries. The peer-to-peer platform allows tenants to interact directly with landlords and enter into medium-term rental agreements. More than 160 partner universities recommend their students to use the HousingAnywhere platform. HousingAnywhere.com was founded in 2009 by Niels van Deuren after he was looking for temporary housing during his studies in Singapore. The Rotterdam-based platform currently employs 90 people. Early 2018 Djordy Seelmann took over the role of CEO.

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