The third annual NatWest International Personal Banking (NatWest IPB) Quality of Life Report reveals that almost three-quarters of retired expats, or 71%, say they have no regrets about the decision.
And a little more than half, or 58%, describe their experience as being “better than they expected”, NatWest IPB says.
The survey on which the report was based was conducted for NatWest IPB by the Centre for Future Studies between October and November 2009.
Among the most interesting findings of the survey is that there appear to be two types of British expats: those who have spent their working lives in the UK and have chosen to retire abroad – which the report’s authors call ‘silver expats’ – and those who left the UK to work abroad and subsequently retired in the country in which they had been living, which here are referred to as ‘lifer expats’.
The NatWest IPB analysis reveals that more than nine out of ten (91%) of those living in Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the USA, who tend to fall into the lifer expat category, do not foresee returning to the UK, while those living in the silver expat countries of France, Portugal and Spain seem far less certain. Of this group, 19% said they were undecided and 16% envisage a return to Britain eventually.
Dave Isley, Head of NatWest International Personal Banking, said the study showed retiring abroad is “still very much a popular choice, and expats are happy with their chosen life paths”.
“It’s encouraging to see that the majority of expats believe they made the right decision in retiring abroad and are living their chosen dream,” Isley added.
Other findings:
• Around a third of expat retirees rate the experience of retiring abroad as “meeting their expectations”
• 92% of retired expats do not live in an established expatriate community
• Of those who do live an established expat community, the majority (56%) did not consider this to have been a determining factor in their decision to locate where they did
• Almost nine in ten retired expats, or 87%, own their homes outright
• A quarter of those retired expatriates surveyed rate their quality of life as excellent and the majority (67%) say they are happier now than they would have been had they remained in Blighty
• More than a third of those surveyed (38%) describe themselves as reasonably well off while 47% said they are able to live within their means
• As a group, retired British expats are a relatively optimistic lot, with more than a third (37%) saying they expect their financial position to have improved while living overseas. Those in New Zealand are the most optimistic, with 53% thinking their financial position will have improved, while the most pessimistic are those living in Spain.
