Meet the Americans moving to Britain
April 2025 - The Telegraph
Applications to relocate to the UK have hit a record high – and they’re not just ‘Donald dashers’
Shawn and his wife, Marcia, have just landed back home in Atlanta, Georgia, after several days spent house hunting in the Cotswolds. The couple, who are in their late 50s, started looking for a holiday property in Europe a couple of years ago. Now, however, they are considering making a permanent move across the Atlantic.
“Safety is what drove our initial search in France, but then our son recently spent part of his university studies in London and we realised it would be nice to speak to people in our native tongue – so started looking in the UK,” says Shawn, who owns an accountancy firm and doesn’t wish to give his surname. “Although we live in a very safe community, we are near downtown Atlanta and there’s a lot of gun violence. Also, with the current political climate, I truly think we are in a downward trend in the United States right now.”
While Britain has its problems, interest in our shores – especially from wealthy Americans – is soaring. Tax and immigration lawyers have been inundated by Americans since November’s presidential election, while the Good Schools Guide says enquiries from US parents about British schools are up 250pc so far this year compared to late 2024.
A record 6,100 Americans applied to become UK citizens last year, an annual rise of 26pc, according to the Home Office. More than 170,000 American expats already reside in the UK, according to Global Citizen Solutions.
Figures from Knight Frank, the estate agents, show that US nationals are now the largest overseas buyer group of the most expensive property in central London, accounting for 11.6pc of sales in the last three months of last year. In the country house market over £2.5m, the number of registered buyers from the US more than doubled year on year in February, says Strutt & Parker, another estate agency.
“Historically, Americans have moved to the UK for a variety of reasons, including security and fear of gun crime in the US, jobs and appreciation of UK culture,” says Hannah Aykroyd, of the London property consultancy Aykroyd & Co. “However, the uptick above and beyond the average is certainly in response to one man.”
A 38pc property discount
Many so-called “Donald dashers”, who typically come from Democrat strongholds such as California, Massachusetts, New York and New Jersey, are focusing on London, drawn by job opportunities and proximity to the Continent. Henry Sherwood, of The Buying Agents, says 60pc of his present client base is American, up from a normal average of 30pc to 40pc. “All our current clients are in banking and finance, hedge funds or tech, and their budgets for flats range from £4m to £6m and from £10m to £20m for houses,” he says.
Canny buyers are also seeking to make a good investment. Knight Frank says central London’s most expensive properties are effectively 38pc cheaper than they were in July 2014, taking account of currency and property price movements.
Ollie Marshall, of the buying agency Prime Purchase, bought a property in Belgravia for a client in December for £13m, which is about $16m at current exchange rates. “The house last changed hands 12 years ago for £20m which back then [given currency changes] would have been worth $32m,” he says. “Compare that with European cities that have experienced significant capital growth over that period and the appeal is clear, plus we have the shared language.”
Many American buyers are focusing on areas such as Notting Hill, Chelsea and Kensington. Leafy Richmond, in south-west London, has also recorded a surge in popularity among Americans – something James Williams, of United Kingdom Sotheby’s International Realty, partly attributes to the Apple TV+ series Ted Lasso, which filmed scenes around Richmond Green.
Drawn by the ‘Ted Lasso effect’, many Americans favour leafy Richmond, in south-west London Estate agents say many incomers rent before committing to buying and will often move to a place in which friends or acquaintances have already settled. That’s the case for British-born Lacey, who wanted to speak under a pseudonym, and her New Yorker husband. The couple and their young son are relocating from New York to Chelsea, renting a house first to see if they want to stay permanently.
“I have an existing network of friends with children in Chelsea,” says Lacey. “Also, it’s not economically viable to live in New York City [because it has] such high taxes and living costs.”
London is also known for being expensive to live in, and pay in Britain has lagged behind that in the US for many years – the average full-time wage in the US is about £52,000, compared to £37,430 in the UK. A recent report by the National Institute of Economic and Social Research (Niesr) said that Britain is no longer a rich country after 15 years of economic stagnation “caused UK living standards to plummet”, leaving households in the poorest parts of the country worse off than those in the poorest parts of Slovenia and Lithuania.
Niesr revealed that the typical British worker would be £4,000 per year better off if productivity growth and wages in the UK had matched those of the US.
But while salaries are higher in the US, big cities such as New York City have far higher costs for housing, utilities, lifestyle and childcare. The lack of affordable healthcare in the US is another major factor driving Americans here, says Rose Carey, of the law firm Charles Russell Speechlys.
Britain’s work-life balance also appeals, adds Emily San Jose, of Mother Euro, a support network for American mothers moving to Europe. “Many Americans are drawn to longer parental leave and a culture that prioritises life outside of work, something that can be difficult to achieve in the US,” she explains.
Buying an escape route
Many American buyers are purchasing in the UK as a way of keeping their options open. “They are effectively putting a flag in the sand here so they have an escape route if things get really weird in the States,” says Roarie Scarisbrick, of the buying agency Property Vision.
The same is true for many citizenship applications, which are also partly driven by the UK’s abolition of non-dom tax status – it has encouraged some wealthy Americans already living in Britain to seek citizenship.
“We have seen a significant uptick in interest from Americans in securing and preserving residence options in the UK,” says Elena Hinchin, of the law firm Farrer & Co. “This may be through obtaining British citizenship, UK visas or through simply acquiring residential property in the UK, although this in itself does not give the right to reside here.”
The UK and US allow dual and multiple nationality, which is a contributing factor in the spike in citizenship applications, says Carey at Charles Russell Speechlys. “It is also possible in many cases to acquire British citizenship through a grandparent born in the UK,” she adds.
An educated move
Schooling is a major driver for American relocations. The UK is the top education destination in Europe, according to Global Citizen Solutions, which analyses over 72 countries. A British private education continues to command cachet globally, says Tess Wilkinson, of global citizenship advisory Henley & Partners.
And, despite VAT now being levied on private school fees, they are often significantly more affordable than American equivalents. Average day school fees are £21,800 a year when taking in the VAT raid, according to Telegraph analysis; in the US, typical day fees have risen to a record of over £38,000, according to S&P Global Ratings.
VAT raid causes largest fee spike on record
Percentage change in fees between academic y
The Fentanyl crisis in the US and school safety are also often cited by US parents. “Families want the peace of knowing their child’s school day won’t be interrupted by a lockdown drill,” says Yasmin Ulhaq, of Glenfield Property Management. “One American tenant in London said: ‘I just feel safer here. I don’t have to worry about some guy with an AR-15 heading towards my kid’s school’.”
Plenty of American accents can be heard at the gates of London’s top private schools, with the American School in London, in St John’s Wood, one of the top choices. In Surrey, a quarter of the 1,300 pupils at the International School in Cobham, formerly the American Community School, are from the US, while Oxford and Cambridge are also gaining in popularity, says Jonathan Hopper, of Garrington Property Finders.
Weather watchers
Extreme weather is another factor pushing Americans here. “Complaining about the weather is a quintessential British pastime, but it’s important not to underestimate how our temperate climate is a real selling point,” says Jonathan Brandling-Harris, of House Collective estate agency. “Especially when compared to the sweltering summer heat and freezing winter temperatures found in many states.”
He has seen a new wave of American buyers following the devastating California wildfires in January. “I’ve heard of cases where even those whose homes were lucky enough to survive the fires simply couldn’t bring themselves to spend another night there,” Brandling-Harris says.
William Lingar, his wife, Rosie, and their three children recently moved to the Cotswolds from Kentucky under a two-year working visa for William’s job at a software company. The family wanted to live here in part because of the cooler climate, and they are renting a house on the outskirts of Cheltenham, found for them by Property Search Company. “After some research, we found the Cotswolds an idyllic place to settle,” says Lingar. “We are really enjoying our time here.”
The lure of the lifestyle
Scotland has long been a hit with Americans, including the president, for its golf courses and history. But it is the Cotswolds which is now the most searched-for location by those based in the US on the Savills website, up 61pc year-on-year. Research by Property Vision suggests around half of the buyers of properties over £5m in the Cotswolds over the past 18 months were American.
“The Cotswolds has become the destination of choice for American buyers seeking a slower pace of life,” says Harry Gladwin, of agency The Buying Solution. “It offers a quality of life that rivals the Hamptons or Napa Valley, but with centuries-old character that cannot be replicated in the US.”
Sharon Barnard, of Stacks Property Search, has been helping Shawn and Marcia with their property search. Buying in the Cotswolds gives them a chance to enjoy an outdoorsy lifestyle. “We both enjoy hiking and walking and we don’t really have that where we live,” says Marcia, a self-employed bookkeeper. “We also have two dogs and it’s great that so many of the pubs in the UK are dog-friendly. In the States, many places don’t allow them – they’re worried about lawsuits.”
Americans’ fondness for Britain extends far beyond politics. Sometimes, one of the couple is British and they want to return to their roots, while for others it’s because they’re an avid sports fan. “We are seeing so many US clients wanting to buy in London because they have a passion for football, especially Spurs,” says Richard Rogerson, of RFR, a high-end London buying advisory.
For Susan Neely, who has worked as special assistant to president George W Bush in the White House, and been CEO at some of America’s largest organisations, buying a two-bedroom flat in Pimlico, central London, with the help of the relocation experts R3Location, had a more nostalgic motivation.
“Immediately after I graduated from university, I took what amounted to a gap year on a student visa and worked at the BBC as a typist, living in a small bedsit in Mornington Crescent,” says Neely, 68, who lives in Washington DC and retired late last year. “It was one of the happiest times of my life and since then I’ve always wanted to own a small slice of this wonderful city. When I thought about retiring, London was where I wanted to be – I love the culture, the food and visiting the theatre.’
View the article