Writing from the UK...giving an insight into our market :-D
The title is not the name of the latest prime time reality TV show, it is in fact the sad reality that the UK is facing as more and more of the talented workforce up and leave.
The UK has won the disappointing title of having lost the highest number of qualified professionals in the world to other countries, more than one in ten clever Brits have taken their skills elsewhere and now 3.247 million Britons live abroad. The level of people packing up and getting out is at its highest in 50 years. We've even beaten Mexico.
But is it surprising? The weather's rubbish, housing and taxes are extortionate, and we Brits can't even eat Lucky Charms for breakfast (why they were taken off the shelves we will never know). There is a fascinating set of comments on the Telegraph Blog relating to the story, but they should be read with caution - they will make you never want to pay the UK a visit!
The loss of skilled workers has never really been a problem in the UK because we've always had them replaced by people migrating here. But it seems that even the migrants have had enough now, and the Poles at least are seeing better wages and a stronger zloty back home and are heading back fast.
The consequence of a loss of migrant workers won't be a pretty sight for the Brits that do stick around to see the results. They've been successfully holding down wage inflation and their absence could have very real inflationary pressures, at a time when we're petrified of inflation as it is. Buy-to-let investors will certainly not be impressed.
So if you're young and articulate and living in England, perhaps with a medical degree or engineering qualification, what should you do? Well the good news is that first time buyers are managing to take advantage of the falling house prices and have made up the largest share of property purchases last month since October 2006. First time buyers increased their market share from 13% in December to 14.5% in January.
It will probably always be rainy, but at least housing is becoming that little bit more affordable.
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