With the Referendum on EU membership looming, households can concentrate on something European
that doesn’t involve party political
broadcasts or politicians treating us all like children…the Euro 2016 Football Tournament!
Oakham
is home to many different backgrounds and nationalities, so if you're not lucky
enough to be jetting off to France for the footy, have no fear! For a bit of fun (although there is a serious side to this – you know there would be with
me!), I have taken a look at which Europeans reside in Oakham. Basically, so I know who to soak up the best
atmosphere with at The Grainstore Brewery with!
During my research some interesting numbers appeared. Going into the Euro 2016 tournament, France
were 3/1 favourites, then Germany 7/2, third Spain 11/2, then England 9/1,
Italy 16/1, Poland 50/1, Romania and Wales at 100/1, Ireland at 150/1 and
Northern Ireland 500/1… (Although, let’s not forget Leicester were tipped at 5000/1
at the start of last season!).
Of the 100,926
residents of the Rutland and Melton Constituency, of the Home Nations going to the competition, 91,519 of them
are from England, 1,177 from Wales, 447 from Northern Ireland and 444 from
Ireland, although I do feel sorry for the 1,896 Scots who didn’t get into the
finals. Now interestingly, looking at
the mainland European residents in the Rutland and Melton Constituency, it
might not surprise you that they make up 2.29% of the population as a whole in Rutland
and Melton.
However, even more
fascinating, of those 2.29% European residents, 1.22% are from Western Europe
because EU residents from Eastern Europe - i.e.
the Accession Countries to the EU between 2003 to 2007 (Czech Republic,
Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia, Bulgaria and
Romania) only make up 1.07% of the population of the Rutland and Melton Constituency.
Broken down into
the relevant football teams, there are in the Rutland and Melton Constituency
the following …
118 French
692 Germans96 Italians
69 Spanish
735 Poles
12 Romanians
… I feel sorry for the Romanian football supporters around here!
But what does this have to do with the Oakham property market? Quite a lot in fact. Many of these Europeans were economic migrants, especially those from Eastern Europe. A lot of people’s concerns over migration are exaggerated as this EU migration has acted to fill gaps in skills and labour supply during growth periods of the mid 2000’s and subsequently over the last five years in Oakham, EU migrants have done little to displace native workers, but do the jobs us Brits don’t often want to do. There is no preferential treatment for council housing in Oakham, so EU migrants have in fact increased demand for privately rented accommodation in Oakham.
With demand for housing in Oakham remaining strong, Oakham landlords are continuing to buy properties to rent out to keep up with this demand. This in turn keeps values high, as landlords typically purchase ‘buy-to-let starter home style’ properties*, thereby releasing existing homeowners to move up the property ladder – benefitting everyone in the chain and, therefore, the property market overall.
However, rents have remained relatively subdued, in Oakham rents are only 15.0% higher than they were in 2005, not bad when you consider we have had 38.52% inflation in the UK economy as a whole over the same 11 years.
EU migration has meant existing homeowners, landlords and the economy as a whole in Oakham (and the UK) have benefitted from better economic conditions and property prices not slumping, whilst rents have been kept in check by wage inflation. Now, I wonder who will win the Euro’s? Back to the TV!
*For details on the week’s best buy-to-let deals currently for
sale in Rutland and Stamford, along with a library of articles covering the
property market in our area, backed up with local facts and figures to assist
you with property investment research, visit the Oakham Property Blog www.rutlandandstamfordpropertyblog.co.uk
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