Politics beats cost of living for UK retirement buyers looking abroad

Politics has edged ahead of the cost of living among the reasons UK-based retirement buyers give for moving overseas, according to the 2026 Your Overseas Home annual buyer survey.

Half of the 233 UK-based respondents buying abroad for retirement selected unhappiness with recent political changes at home as one of their reasons for moving. A lower cost of living was selected by 42.5%.

Healthier living still came first, on 62.7%, followed by better weather on 58.4%. So politics at home has not quite replaced sunshine as the great retirement motivator. as the great retirement motivator. But politics is plainly part of the calculation.

The survey received 1,107 completed responses between 16 June and 6 September. It was self-selected rather than a representative poll and respondents could choose more than one motivation, so the figures show what they selected rather than what caused them to move.

Running since 2017, the Your Overseas Home Annual Buyer Survey tracks the plans, dreams and desires of people who would like to buy a property overseas, retire overseas or invest overseas.

A few highlights from the 2026 survey:

• You don’t have to be rich to buy overseas – many respondents plan to use savings or property-sale proceeds.
• Ten years on, four in ten Leave-voting survey respondents say they would vote Remain today.
• Sunshine is nice, but a healthier lifestyle tops the reasons retirement respondents selected.
• Unhappiness about politics at home is one of the reasons retirement and relocation respondents give for going overseas. (The smaller US-based retirement sample was higher still.)
• France is the top choice, closely followed by Spain.
• Forget the pool: walkable shops and cafés were selected as essential more than twice as often.
• Almost half of holiday home buyers say they would work from it or might do so.
• One in five retirement respondents say they are retiring overseas on their own.
• Two-thirds of property buyers are budgeting below €300,000.

Four in ten Leave voters would now vote Remain

The political thread runs through another answer too.

Asked how they would vote if the 2016 EU referendum were held today, 100 of the 242 respondents who said they voted Leave – 41.3% – said they would now vote Remain.

Movement the other way was much smaller. Eight of the 425 respondents who said they voted Remain said they would now vote Leave.

For context, the actual 2016 referendum finished 51.9% Leave to 48.1% Remain.

This is not a rerun of the referendum and it is certainly not a poll of the country. It is a self-selected survey of people interested enough in moving or buying overseas to answer questions about it. That is a fairly important caveat before anyone starts writing “Brexit reversed” across the front page.

But within this group, politics is not background noise. Among the smaller group relocating abroad without retiring, 50.6% also selected recent political changes at home as one of their reasons.

The dream is clear. The paperwork can wait

Knowing why you want to move abroad is one thing. Booking appointments, finding documents and working out which visa form wants which version of your birth certificate is quite another.

Of the 313 retirement buyers in the survey, 218 – 69.6% – had not started the visa process. Just 16 had started it; another 79 said they would not need a visa or could obtain an Irish or EU passport. The free Retirement Overseas Guide covers the main visa, pension, healthcare and property questions for buyers moving from idea to plan.

The same gap shows up elsewhere. Among 990 prospective buyers, 86.2% had not booked a viewing trip and 65.9% had not started planning how they would move their money overseas.

That last figure matters because 52.9% of 916 respondents asked directly about exchange rates said an adverse movement would cause a problem for their property budget.

In other words, plenty of buyers know the country, the kind of house and possibly the terrace they want to sit on. The spreadsheet marked “how we actually pay for it” is having a quieter time.

Forget the infinity pool – buyers want shops they can walk to

Television has done sterling work convincing us that no overseas property search is complete without a swimming pool. Buyers themselves are rather more practical.

Walking distance to shops and cafés was considered essential by 69.3% of prospective buyers. A pool managed 32.5%.

A garden or terrace topped the property wish list on 72.5%, while 60.4% wanted a view. The message is fairly clear: somewhere pleasant to sit matters, but being able to walk out for bread, coffee or dinner matters more than somewhere to practise your backstroke.

The budgets are grounded too. Of the 640 respondents buying a property, 65.9% were looking below €300,000 (£257,000) and 43.0% below €200,000 (£172,000).

Only 9.7% expected to use a mortgage. Savings were selected by 42.0% as a source of funds, while 41.1% expected to use money from selling a property that was not yet on the market.

That last number brings the overseas dream back to a very familiar British reality: before the keys to the new place can change hands, somebody may still need to buy the old one.

France edges Spain – but only just

France came top of the overseas wish list. By six people. Nobody need start commissioning a trophy.

It was the first choice of 281 respondents, or 25.4%, with Spain on 275, or 24.8%. Buyers still weighing up the two can browse property for sale in France and property for sale in Spain on the portal.

Italy followed on 134, Portugal on 122, Greece on 86 and Cyprus on 45. Another 109 respondents had not yet decided which country they wanted.

So the gap between France and Spain is best treated as neck-and-neck rather than a decisive victory. Six people out of 1,107 is a lead, but not one that requires a victory parade down the Champs-Élysées.

Choosing a region proved harder. Among 835 prospective buyers considering the six main countries, 137 – 16.4% – still could not name one.

Nouvelle-Aquitaine in south-west France was the most popular named region, chosen by 73 respondents. The Costa del Sol followed on 49 and the Costa Blanca on 47.

Buying abroad looks less frightening from the other side

The survey also contains a useful antidote to some of the nerves around buying overseas: the answers from people who have already done it.

Among prospective buyers, 39.0% said the legal process worried them. Yet 87.2% of the 117 respondents who had completed a purchase described the process as quite or very easy, while 82.9% said they had been fairly or very confident in their legal representation.

That is not an argument for winging it. The buyers who completed are a self-selecting group, and nobody who has spent 20 minutes trying to understand an overseas purchase contract needs to be told that paperwork exists.

It does, however, suggest the anticipation may be worse than the reality for many buyers who prepare properly and use the right professionals. Our guide to the three important contacts when buying property overseas explains where the estate agent, lawyer and currency specialist fit into the process.

The house hunt itself was shorter than some might expect too. Two-thirds of completed buyers found their property after no more than two viewing trips and 65.8% viewed ten properties or fewer.

Nobody is suggesting you book a long weekend and bring a deposit. But the figures make a decent case for a good shortlist over months of recreational Rightmove-style scrolling with an airport at the end of it.

What should I do next?

If retiring abroad is still at the “one day” stage, the Retirement Overseas Guide is a sensible place to start. It covers the practical questions that tend to arrive shortly after the sunshine-and-terrace conversation: visas, pensions, healthcare, property and the move itself.

If you have chosen a country and are moving closer to a purchase, get the professional side lined up early. The guide to the three important contacts when buying property overseas explains who should be on your side before money starts moving.

Summary

In 2026, Your Overseas Home surveyed 1,107 people considering an overseas property move or who had already bought abroad.

Among UK-based retirement buyers, 50.6% selected political change at home as a reason for moving abroad, ahead of lower living costs at 42.5%.

Healthier living and better weather remained the two most commonly selected retirement motivations.

Practical planning is further behind: 69.6% of retirement buyers haven’t started their visa process and 86.2% of prospective buyers haven’t booked a viewing trip.

France and Spain were effectively tied as the most popular countries, separated by six respondents.

And while the legal process worries many prospective buyers, 87.2% of respondents who had already bought said they found the process quite or very easy.

About the survey

The Your Overseas Home Annual Buyer Survey 2026 ran from 16 June to 6 September 2026 and received 1,107 completed responses.

It was a self-selected survey rather than a representative poll. Question bases vary because respondents followed different routes through the survey and some questions allowed more than one answer. No significance testing was carried out.

The analysis covers 1,107 completed survey responses.

Sources

1. Your Overseas Home Annual Buyer Survey 2026 – 1,107 completed responses, fieldwork 16 June to 6 September 2026.
2. Your Overseas Home 2026 survey press release and methodology notes.
3. Electoral Commission – 2016 EU referendum report