Retired Brits 'rushing to move to Spain, Portugal and France' before Brexit makes it more difficult
Get politics updates directly to your inbox + Subscribe Thank you for subscribing! Could not subscribe, try again later Invalid Email
Retired Britons are rushing to move to the likes of Spain, Portugal and France before Brexit makes resettling there more difficult, according to experts.
OAPs and early retirees are heading for warmer continental Europe to beat red tape, financial advisers said yesterday.
The Government has insisted free movement will end the day the UK leaves the EU in March 2019, meaning no automatic right to relocate.
One expert, whose clients are largely British expats in Spain, said a customer had taken early retirement to beat the Brexit deadline.
Chris Burke, of the Spectrum group of independent financial advisers, added: “People looking to retire to Spain are bringing it forward and moving out now.”
(Image: PA)
Some 900,000 Britons currently live in other EU nations. An estimated 300,000 were living in Spain in 2016, with over-65s making up around 40% of those.
One company which helps retirees moving to the mainland said monthly inquiries to its website had doubled in a year, with actual business up by 25%. Jason Porter of Blevins Franks, which provides financial and tax advice to expats, added: “The feeling we are getting from our clients is that it is better to be in the country before Brexit than looking to do this after.
“The main concerns that people thinking about retiring to Europe have are around three issues: residence, healthcare and the UK state pension triple lock.”
But migration expert John Springford, of the Centre for European Reform, warned the “golden age of British retirees heading to the Costas is probably over”.
And he told the Guardian: “Retirees are expensive.
“There is no way Spain would allow lots of Brits to retire there and use their health system unless young Spanish people could come and work in the UK. If we don’t have free movement, it’s very unlikely we’d have retirement rights.”
Other top EU destinations for expats are Ireland, with 249,000 Britons living there, and France, with 171,000. About 3.2 million Europeans are based in the UK.