UK Expat and Non-Resident Property Statistics 2026

Who this page is for

This page is a reference, not a sales page. It brings together publicly available data on British nationals living abroad, overseas buyer activity in the UK property market, non-resident stamp duty, and UK buy-to-let lending, in one place.

It is aimed at journalists, researchers, other advisers, and anyone who wants a sourced starting point rather than an anecdote. Every figure links to the original data or report it comes from. Where a figure has a date attached (most of them do), that date is the period the data covers, not the date we last checked it.

How many British people live abroad

The most widely cited estimate for British nationals living outside the UK is around 5.5 million people, roughly 8% of all UK nationals. The Office for National Statistics (ONS) is upfront that this figure carries real uncertainty, since Britons abroad are not required to register with a local authority or a UK consulate, so no single dataset counts them directly.

What the flow data shows more precisely:

• An estimated 246,000 people left the UK in the year ending December 2025, slightly down on the 257,000 estimated to have left the year before.
• Between 2021 and 2024, 992,000 British nationals emigrated, around 679 people a day, with roughly three-quarters of them under the age of 35.
• Net British emigration is currently running at around minus 136,000 a year: more Britons leaving the UK long-term than returning.

ONS notes the typical emigrating Briton looks less like a retiree and more like a working-age professional or student, which lines up with what we see in expat mortgage enquiries: career moves and employer relocations drive most cases, not retirement.

How much of the UK property market is overseas buyers

Overseas buyer interest in UK property has fallen sharply and is now at its lowest recorded level, according to research from estate agency Hamptons.

• Overseas-based house-hunters made up just 1.0% of all prospective buyers in Great Britain in the first quarter of 2025, the lowest share since Hamptons' records began in 2008, down from 2.0% in 2015.
• In Prime Central London specifically, overseas applicants fell to 2.9% of house-hunters in Q1 2025, down from 4.0% in 2024, 5.7% a decade earlier, and a peak of 7.9% in 2009.
• Buyer composition has shifted alongside the fall. North American buyers, mostly American, made up a record 16% of international buyers in Q1 2025, more than double the 6% recorded in 2008.
• The share of overseas buyers looking specifically for a second home or a buy-to-let has dropped from 30% in 2019 to 19% in Q1 2025. Hamptons links this to higher stamp duty costs and the end of the non-dom tax regime.

Separately, an analysis of HM Land Registry data by the Centre for Public Data found 181,701 titles in England and Wales registered to individuals giving an overseas correspondence address, around 0.7% of all registered titles. That is a stock figure (existing ownership), not a flow figure (new purchases), so it should not be read alongside the Hamptons house-hunter percentages above as if they measure the same thing.

The non-resident stamp duty surcharge

Since 1 April 2021, an additional 2% Stamp Duty Land Tax surcharge has applied to UK residential purchases by non-UK residents, on top of standard rates and any existing surcharge. For a non-resident buying an additional property, this stacks with the 5% additional-dwelling surcharge, a combined 7 percentage points above the base rate on the first taxable band.

We cover the mechanics, worked examples, and rebate rules in full on the non-UK resident stamp duty guide, and you can model any purchase price on the stamp duty calculator.

UK buy-to-let lending activity

Buy-to-let lending picked up through 2025, based on figures from UK Finance, the UK banking and finance industry body.

• 58,347 new buy-to-let mortgages were advanced in Q1 2025, worth £10.5 billion, up 38.6% by number and 46.8% by value on Q1 2024.
• Momentum continued through the year: more than 59,000 BTL loans were advanced in Q4 2025, 18.2% more than the same quarter of the previous year.
• 1.46 million BTL mortgages were on fixed rates at the end of 2025, up 2% year-on-year, while the number on variable rates fell 9.8% to 466,000.
• Around 4.7 million households in the UK privately rent, roughly 1 in 5 (19%) of all households.
• A record 33,598 buy-to-let companies were incorporated in the first half of 2025 alone, continuing the shift toward limited company buy-to-let structures.

For how this applies to non-resident and expat landlords specifically, see non-UK resident buy-to-let mortgages and expat buy-to-let mortgages.

Sources

• Office for National Statistics — British citizens residing abroad
• Office for National Statistics — Long-term international migration, provisional, year ending December 2025
• Office for National Statistics — UK emigration explained: what we know about Brits moving abroad
• Hamptons — Overseas house hunters in Britain hit record low
• Centre for Public Data — Property in England & Wales registered to overseas individuals (HM Land Registry data)
• gov.uk — Rates of Stamp Duty Land Tax for non-UK residents
• UK Finance — Buy-to-let lending data

This page is for general information only and is not financial, legal, or tax advice. Figures are third-party data compiled by UK Mortgages Worldwide; we do not control or guarantee their ongoing accuracy, and each source may revise its own figures over time. Always check the original source for the latest published data before relying on a specific number.

Common questions