Expats In Europe Face Higher Living Costs

 

 

British expats around the world have seen living costs increase by an average of over 8% in the last year, new research from the Post Office has revealed.


The Post Office Expat Payments Index surveyed just over 700 expats, with half of them based in Europe. The poll found that prices in certain regions have gone up much higher than the average. About 40% of respondents claimed that their total living costs have risen by at least 10%.


The steepest increase in the cost of household bills, motoring and eating out was recorded in Greece and Portugal, the survey found. While in the former, one in three Britons said their living costs had increased by more than 20%, in the latter this proportion was about one in five.


More broadly speaking, there was a drop in confidence among expats living in Europe as a whole, with more than four in five stating that they have felt the impact of rising living costs on their daily lives.


In addition, more than half of the respondents who also owned a property abroad said that the value of their home had dropped over the past year, with one in ten estimating that the fall was higher than 20%.

 

According to John Willcock, head of Post Office transactional services, with such dramatic changes in costs it is hardly surprising that expats were losing confidence, especially in Europe.

 

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