Belvoir News Article

30/08/2007 - Migrant Workers Boost Residential Lettings Market - Landlords have nothing to fear from overseas tenants says Belvoir

Despite popular opinion, not all migrant workers coming to the UK are living ten to a room. Indeed, according to Belvoir, the residential lettings and property management specialist which operates a national network of over 100 offices, nothing could be further from the truth. According to the company, many overseas professionals and workers seek quality accommodation for themselves and their families to build careers and new lives for themselves in the UK.

“We have seen a big increase in the number of migrant workers looking to rent apartments and houses over the last couple of years,” says Mike Goddard, Chief Executive of Belvoir who has overseen a 28% growth in network sales during the past 12 months.

“These are people who have good jobs and want somewhere nice to live with their families,” he continues. “They are honest, hardworking individuals who are proving themselves to be good tenants and are welcomed by the landlords we work with across the country.”

The number of migrant workers coming to the UK has increased dramatically since 2004 when Poland, along with other countries such as the Czech Republic and Slovenia became European member states. Indeed, according to Home Office statistics, some 600,000 workers from these states have entered the UK since 2004, bringing with them around 36,000 dependents.

The majority of these new workers (more than half) come from Poland, with around 80% of them aged between 18 and 35. As well as taking up a range of jobs in both cities and rural areas, many of them are demanding quality rental accommodation as they put down roots and make Britain their new home.

As most UK banks launch services and accounts aimed specifically at this new sector of the population, there has also been a notable change on the high street as specialist food shops, restaurants and other businesses open up to cater for demand from this increasingly affluent sector of society. It is reported that migrant workers now contribute some £2.54bn to the economy annually and, with
specialist migrant worker recruitment fairs now springing up all over the country, it goes without saying that that figure it set only to increase.

“The current growth in the residential lettings sector is being driven by rising interest rates, increasing employment opportunities and the growing number of workers arriving from the EU, “says Mike Goddard “This means good news for landlords as it is helping to sustain growth in the buy to let market.”

“Anyone coming to work in the UK needs somewhere to live and at Belvoir we are more than happy to find good accommodation for tenants wherever they originate from.”

He adds: “We are keen to dispel the myth that Polish and Czech Republic people commonly cram themselves into downtrodden UK accommodation. This simply isn’t the case and while, of course, such situations can exist we want to emphasise to landlords that the vast majority of Eastern European workers are honest, hardworking people who desire and deserve to live in a nice home. In our experience they are good tenants who respect their home, pay their rent and make good neighbours. What more could a landlord ask for?”


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