5% Of Uk Expats Names Thailand As Retirement Destination

[george]

5% of UK expats names Thailand as retirement destination

Only 13 per cent of UK expats intend to retire in the UK, and 5 per cent of all surveyed plan to spend the retirement in Thailand, according to a recent study by Alliance & Leicester International.

In the report obtained by The Nation, 400,000, UK expats are voting with their feet and choosing to retire abroad according to findings from Alliance & Leicester International (ALIL). France (18 per cent) is the most popular retirement destination for expats followed by Spain (13 per cent) and then the UK (12 per cent).

However, while 88 per cent of expats intend to retire abroad, access to UK based family and friends still appears to be important with 57 per cent intending to retire in Europe. Indeed, 10 per cent of expats cited being away from family and friends as a major barrier to retiring outside the UK.

Further afield, Thailand (5 per cent), the US (4 per cent) and New Zealand (3 per cent) are all potential retiree destinations. Expats intend to fund their new lives in the sun through a variety of methods including savings (27 per cent), UK State Pension (23 per cent) and private pensions (20 per cent). Property is a big source of retirement funding for expats with 6 per cent relying on rental income, 6 per cent intending to sell a residential investment and 2 per cent planning to take out an equity release plan.

When considering the key factors that contribute to the chosen retirement destination, better quality of life was voted top (21 per cent). Better weather came second (20 per cent) and value for money third (14 per cent).

However the expats, who intend to retire abroad, do have some concerns about retiring in another country. The quality of medical facilities and dealing with general medical issues - potentially in a foreign language - was the biggest worry for 1 in 5 expats (22 per cent).

Finances were also a concern with 13 per cent worrying about exchange rates and 12 per cent concerned about having sufficient money to survive. Frailty was also a concern with 14 per cent of women citing this as a worry compared to just 10 per cent of men.

Lynette Byrne, Head of Marketing at Alliance & Leicester International, said "It is interesting to see that many UK expats have settled in their new home, with 87 per cent of UK Expats intending to retire abroad.

"However, while some Expats might prefer life outside the UK, they are still very attached to friends and family thus settling in European destinations that are only a low cost flight away.

"This research really highlights the international nature of society today and raises some interesting questions as to how people are going to manage their finances and protect their savings against interest rate fluctuations.

"Expats who bank with Alliance & Leicester International can choose to hold their savings in a Sterling, US Dollar or Euro account giving them not only access to 'Best Buy rates but also the opportunity to shield their retirement cash from currency fluctuations. They can also be safe in the knowledge that they can access their money using internet banking 24 hours a day no matter where they are living."

-- The Nation 2009-12-02

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[chiang mai]

Difficult to know where to begin to comment on this nonsense, for example, "However, while 88 per cent of expats intend to retire abroad" - are they trying to suggest that 88% of all UK retiree's will retire abroad, difficult to understand? But regardless, it's a nice little piece of self marketing from ALIL so you all know where to go for your expat accounts, personally I cannot recommend them based on past experience.

[BusyBee123]

what's difficult to understand? 88% of expats do not intend to retire in their homeland.

[seaeagle]

Difficult to know where to begin to comment on this nonsense, for example, "However, while 88 per cent of expats intend to retire abroad" - are they trying to suggest that 88% of all UK retiree's will retire abroad, difficult to understand? But regardless, it's a nice little piece of self marketing from ALIL so you all know where to go for your expat accounts, personally I cannot recommend them based on past experience.

No - it doesn't say 88% of retirees-to-be. It says 88% of expats.

That would clearly be existing expats, if they've researched expats to find out where they want to end up : go 'home', or stay living overseas like they have been doing.

Only a small proportion of the UK population would be expats of working age. So, saying that 5% of them wish to consider Thailand for retirement ain't going to fuel a boom in the property market!

[David006]

<deleted>....So what and who cares??? Is it a slow news day? Maybe XX% of us don't GAD..??? worry worry worry......where's the sun today and why are the prawns up by 5 baht at the market....where did I put that lemon ..my lighter /cigs .get me anudder beer dearest..please...IMPORTANT STUFF!!.lol

Frankly Scarlet.....

[seaeagle]

<deleted>....So what and who cares??? Is it a slow news day? Maybe XX% of us don't GAD..??? worry worry worry......where's the sun today and why are the prawns up by 5 baht at the market....where did I put that lemon ..my lighter /cigs .get me anudder beer dearest..please...IMPORTANT STUFF!!.lol

Frankly Scarlet.....

Sounds as if you've already been sucking on that lemon of yours!

[chiang mai]

what's difficult to understand? 88% of expats do not intend to retire in their homeland.

Umm, an expat, by definition, cannot retire in their homeland since expats are already outside of their country of birth! That's just one part of what's difficult to understand.

[PhilHarries]

what's difficult to understand? 88% of expats do not intend to retire in their homeland.

Umm, an expat, by definition, cannot retire in their homeland since expats are already outside of their country of birth! That's just one part of what's difficult to understand.

Whay can an expat not retire to his homeland unless he's given up his citizenship?

[Bagwan]

I understand that about 30% of UK pensioners live abroad. I assume that the rest can't afford to. Tough.

[WeeGB]

Seems to be a BS exercise to promote the Alliance and Leicester, disguised as a news item.

Personally, I wouldn't recommend them to my worst enemy. I've been trying to close a dormant account with them for four months, and despite jumping through all the hoops they've presented me with, including getting all my paperwork countersigned by a solicitor, I'm still waiting for a final cheque.

Think of them as the old style immigration service here, ( which has improved greatly over the past year, IMHO), except the Alliance & Leicester have there hands on YOUR money.

Now what does Bankers rhyme with?

[givenall]

Difficult to know where to begin to comment on this nonsense, for example, "However, while 88 per cent of expats intend to retire abroad" - are they trying to suggest that 88% of all UK retiree's will retire abroad, difficult to understand? But regardless, it's a nice little piece of self marketing from ALIL so you all know where to go for your expat accounts, personally I cannot recommend them based on past experience.

I never trust the statistical numbers published by Thai agency or new people. From Past experience they seem to be very good in Thailand favor and of course inaccurate too

[PattayaParent]

what's difficult to understand? 88% of expats do not intend to retire in their homeland.

Umm, an expat, by definition, cannot retire in their homeland since expats are already outside of their country of birth! That's just one part of what's difficult to understand.

Whay can an expat not retire to his homeland unless he's given up his citizenship?

And even then there's nothing to stop a non UK citizen from retiring to UK.

Nothing difficult to understand in the article at all, it's quite clear.

[GuyLakeman]

Well, my retirement is here in Thailand and no worries about medicine. As far as I am concerned the medicine is the best in teh world as these wonderful people have bought me back to life! And I cant say THANKYOU big enough!

[caf]

I understand that about 30% of UK pensioners live abroad. I assume that the rest can't afford to. Tough.

It's nowhere near 30%

Most pensioners stay in the Uk. 90% more like leaving 10% to become expats. And maybe that is high.

By definition an expat does not live in the uk, so i agree with Chiangmai. A confusing and inaccurate opening post.

[chiang mai]

The term "expat" defines citizens living overseas regardless of whether they are employed or already retired. I don't know what the numbers are but I'm pretty certain that by far the largest percentage of those two groups is those that are already retired and living overseas using ALIL as their source of retirement income. Therefore, to suggest that 88% of that (already retired group) is not going to retire in the UK is meaningless. Perhaps if that group were taken as a percentage of the country's retired population then it might be more indicative of something!

[torrenova]

If it said that 88% of people wanted to live abroad, then it might be believable. The true figure, amongst those not already living abroad or having previously lived abroad, is probably less than 5%. What people want and what they do are very different.

Anyone who has harboured thoughts of retiring to a Euro country from the UK now needs about twice the money and pension they did 10 years ago. Do they have that wealth ? No. Therefore, end of dream. People already retired in the Euro zone are returning because they cannot make ends meet with the slump of the pound.

As for SE Asia, many people go on holiday once or twice and harbour pipe dreams that they will retire in the sun with no real idea how they will do so.

These figures are rubbish.

[Bagwan]

I understand that about 30% of UK pensioners live abroad. I assume that the rest can't afford to. Tough.

It's nowhere near 30%

Most pensioners stay in the Uk. 90% more like leaving 10% to become expats. And maybe that is high.

May I inquire where it was that you got your figures from? I got mine from a UK Government report from about 3 years ago. I should think that the Pension Service know how many pensioners flee UK. Then you have to account for those who do not admit to living overseas thus perpetrating a fraud.

[khundon]

what's difficult to understand? 88% of expats do not intend to retire in their homeland.

Umm, an expat, by definition, cannot retire in their homeland since expats are already outside of their country of birth! That's just one part of what's difficult to understand.

Whay can an expat not retire to his homeland unless he's given up his citizenship?

I may be wrong but I think if a UK citizen gives up their citizenship, they can still go back to UK and regain it simply by asking for it.

I'll wait for the slapping.

[caf]

what's difficult to understand? 88% of expats do not intend to retire in their homeland.

Umm, an expat, by definition, cannot retire in their homeland since expats are already outside of their country of birth! That's just one part of what's difficult to understand.

Whay can an expat not retire to his homeland unless he's given up his citizenship?

I may be wrong but I think if a UK citizen gives up their citizenship, they can still go back to UK and regain it simply by asking for it.

I'll wait for the slapping.

It may be different in other countries but if you are a UK citizen it cannot be removed. You can deny you are a citizen of course, you can throw away your passport, you can obtain another citizenship from another country,

So if you go back to the UK you do not need to reclaim, you never lost it.

[caf]

I understand that about 30% of UK pensioners live abroad. I assume that the rest can't afford to. Tough.

It's nowhere near 30%

Most pensioners stay in the Uk. 90% more like leaving 10% to become expats. And maybe that is high.

May I inquire where it was that you got your figures from? I got mine from a UK Government report from about 3 years ago. I should think that the Pension Service know how many pensioners flee UK. Then you have to account for those who do not admit to living overseas thus perpetrating a fraud.

I estimated 10% from a number of sources though I commented that I thought that may be on the high side. My point was that 30% was way off the mark. My figure of 10% was meant to be a cautious and conservative figure.

The latest figures on the pension service site are 3% of pensioners live abroad. Around 1.1 million.

If you want me to best guess today's figure I would say higher than 3% and put it at 4%; I base that on higher emigration rates over the last three years but as I say The only figure from the Pension Service is a few years old at 3%

Would be interesting to see if other posters have a different view.

( Am not sure you should use the word "flee" for an expat who retires abroad, and remember most expats though not ordinarily resident are deemed still to be domiciled in the uk by the uk authorities - more detail on the hmrc website)

Edited December 4, 2009 by caf

[lioness]

Retiring and owning an overseas home is not the same, many people have holiday homes. One recent report I read said that 24% of UK residents owned homes overseas and that figure was expected to increase to 30% over the next 5 years.

I can't work out why anyone would want to leave the UK and retire in Europe, ok they may get cheap flights but the advantage of this is overidden by the cost of living.

I went through this excercise with a friend a while back, with the cost of living in Thailand. On the UK pension they could live well in Thailand a lot better than Europe and still afford trips "home".

[caf]

Retiring and owning an overseas home is not the same, many people have holiday homes. One recent report I read said that 24% of UK residents owned homes overseas and that figure was expected to increase to 30% over the next 5 years.

I can't work out why anyone would want to leave the UK and retire in Europe, ok they may get cheap flights but the advantage of this is overidden by the cost of living.

I went through this excercise with a friend a while back, with the cost of living in Thailand. On the UK pension they could live well in Thailand a lot better than Europe and still afford trips "home".

We are discussing retired or potentially retired expats which excludes uk residents who have holiday homes. So the figure is still around 3% from the Pension service site

[PoorSucker]

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