Brexit has dashed Britons’ dreams of owning a second home in a European nation, with expats abandoning their properties under the pressure of a mountain of paperwork.
Figures released by the English Housing Survey show the number of residents with foreign properties has dropped by more than a quarter since 2012.
Over the last decade, the rate of UK-based second homeowners in the nation has fallen from 40 percent to under 30 percent.
Experts have blamed Brexit bureaucracy for the difference, with people struggling to cross the new hurdles.
The drain has sucked up properties in the UK, with former foreign property owners looking homewards.
During the same period in which European ownership plummeted, second-home ownership in the UK increased.
The rate has increased from 40 percent to 55 percent over the last 10 years, with regular Britons struggling to get on the property ladder.
Second homes have been blamed for reducing the number of affordable homes in the UK, which is currently in the midst of a housing shortage.
In turn, this can impact local economies, especially those on the coast where many second homes are holiday rentals, leaving picturesque towns derelict during the off-season.
The decline in overseas second homes has affected France most profoundly, the research found.
There were 93,000 British second homeowners living in the nation in 2012 but 33,000 fewer in 2023.
Annette de Vries, an estate agent in Monpazier, Dordogne, directly blamed Brexit for the reduction in local business.
She told The Times: “Less British people are looking for houses than before. The main reason is Brexit.
“It’s so much more difficult for British people to buy something here. They need health insurance, and that’s very difficult for them.”
Since 2012, the average reduction of second-home ownership in Europe is roughly 23,000, with interest diving due to new rules that prevent people from spending no more than 90 days in the EU during a 180-day period unless they have secured a Visa.
