Announcement of ‘partial mobilisation’ triggers significant increase in Russian residents searching for housing in Western Europe
Announcement of ‘partial mobilisation’ triggers significant increase in Russian residents searching for housing in Western Europe
- Following President Putin’s announced mobilisation of his country’s citizens on September 21, 2022, Russian residents searching for housing in Europe reached a record-breaking YoY increase of 164% on September 23, 2022.
- Top search destinations for this audience is Germany (45%), followed by Italy (11%), Spain (7%), France (6%), Austria (5%) and Finland (5%).
Rotterdam 29 September, 2022 – HousingAnywhere (housinganywhere.com) witnesses a peak in Russian residents looking for housing in Europe, after Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a partial mobilisation.
On September 23, 2022, two days after the announcement of President Putin, HousingAnywhere’s data showed an increase of over 164% YoY. With the upward trend kicking-off on the day of the announcement, the abnormal surge reached a peak of a YoY increase of 224% on September 24, 2022. This observation is also visible in Google search trends, where we see an increasing interest in Russian residents searching for the term ‘immigration’ as well as mobility- and relocation-related search terms in Russian.
The top 4 European countries that show the most sizable increase of Russian residents searching for housing are Germany, Italy, Spain, and France. In absolute terms these countries are the most popularly searched ones with Germany accounting for 45% of Russian search traffic, Italy for 11%, Spain for 7% and France for 6%. This is not too surprising, given that those four countries rank among the largest and economically most successful European countries. Moreover, immediately after the announcement, several ministers of the German government have indicated that people fleeing Russia could apply for asylum in Germany. This is likely to have further propelled Russian residents’ interest in looking into Germany as a destination.
A trend that we have seen pre-Covid and that intensified following the removal of travel restrictions earlier this year, is the demand for international mobility. Indeed demand on the HousingAnywhere marketplace has been rising and breaking record after record every quarter, as the International Rent Index reveals. However, the desire to move across borders is not only a trendy lifestyle choice. In extreme situations like in Russia or after the US supreme court’s decision to ban abortion, people who may have not been planning to leave their home behind consider taking this huge step.
About HousingAnywhere
HousingAnywhere is Europe’s largest rental accommodation marketplace. With the full ownership of Kamernet and the acquisition of majority stakes of Studapart, the company represents 20 million+ yearly unique visitors, 160,000+ properties available for rent and 96,000+ tenants finding their new homes in Europe, based on the 2021 performance. Young professionals and students, mostly aged between 18 and 35, looking to rent a home are matched with accommodation providers; ranging from private real estate owners to large-scale property managers. Through its advanced platform, tenants typically book for longer stays outside of their country of origin and rent accommodation for 3 to 12 months. The company aims to help 130,000+ people find a home in Europe in 2022. The Rotterdam-based technology scale-up currently employs 260 people.
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