How Irish overseas are hastening their return home

Overseas Irish returning here to retire isn't new. But world events may be drawing them home years sooner. Brexit and Trump have driven some to second-guess their second home. A pandemic has brought family ties into sharper focus as well. With work now untethered from place, there's a flow of Irish emigrants house hunting back here.

Bring them home

Returning emigrants citing world events as their motive to move is something estate agent Shane Flanagan of DNG Flanagan Ford in Sligo is hearing more of. “I have people bidding from Arizona who they say they are unhappy with where America is at the moment, how it is dealing with Covid and Trump’s policies. They want to come back.”

The majority of those moving are buying at the upper end of the Sligo market, he says. “Anything over €450,000 really.”

Another prospective buyer who works between Europe and the US is looking to move to Ireland permanently. "They were travelling 35 out of 52 weeks a year for the past five years. They don't think they will ever travel more than four or five weeks a year again," says Flanagan. When incessant work travel grinds to a halt, where you live becomes more important.

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Head of Sherry FitzGerald country homes Roseanne De Vere Hunt says overseas buyers are now very focused. One expat couple who have just gone sale agreed on a property here had lived in the US for 25 years. “Covid made them reconsider their lives. They were living in an apartment with their children in New York. During Covid, they were very restricted and it was the first time in 25 years they felt afraid of living in the city. They felt there was a lot of unease.”

After months of trying to social distance in densely packed cities, or working from home while home-schooling children, space and the outdoors are a big draw

Family connection, space, lower density, country living and schools are the major draws. Sherry FitzGerald’s Dalkey branch reports inquiries from LA, Colorado and New York. “There is definitely appetite, however due to the 14-day quarantine restriction, some are reluctant to travel,” says sales director Rosie Mulvany. “That said, I have a number of parties still flying and waiting the mandatory 14 days before viewing.”

She predicts more traction if and when restrictions are lifted. Data from property website MyHome.ie underscores the trend. Overall traffic to the site was up 50 per cent year on year in September with the number of US-based visitors rising from 5 to 8 per cent. Cottages in Wild Atlantic Way locations stoked significant interest among all visitors to the site.

A Dún Laoghaire-based estate agent cites a keen buyer, returned from London where the family lived in Fulham. There were eight Irish families living on her road before Covid-19; now she says there are just four. The rest have moved home.

A cut to stamp duty in the UK has driven up prices there. Anyone spending more than £500,000 on a property is set to save £15,000 if they buy before next March 31st. Prices in August there were 5.2 per cent higher than the same month last year, the fastest annual rate since late 2016. For those thinking of returning, increasing UK property prices make now a good time to sell.

Country life

Settling in a city was once a returning emigrant’s best chance of maintaining career and earnings. But with the pandemic severing the bind between work and place, many moving back are rolling the dice with lifestyle, community and good broadband the new parameters. After months of trying to social distance in densely packed cities, or working from home whilst home-schooling children, space and the outdoors are a big draw.

“Many emigrants living in cities just don’t have access to that,” says DNG’s Flanagan. July saw tens of thousands of people descend on beaches on England’s south coast. As temperatures reached almost 38 degrees in London, stretches of Bournemouth, Poole and Brighton were packed.

“One UK client I have buying said, if the weather is really good, and you go to the nice spot where people go, there are throngs of people. It was the first time the penny dropped.” Ireland’s beaches don’t really get overrun.

Grow Remote is a not-for-profit organisation aimed at enabling people to work where they live. Founded in 2018, it’s an idea whose time has come. The group is attracting members relocating within Ireland and returning emigrants too.

“We believe we are in the middle of a seismic change in ways of working that opens up a whole new opportunity for a better quality of life, for remote workers and for rural communities,” says founder Tracy Keogh. When you can work anywhere, why not live where you love?

The organisation runs online "Town Taster" events where those curious about a location can hear from blow-ins and locals about what it's really like to live there – from finding a place to rent or buy, to insider knowledge on schools, the availability of babysitters to getting a spot in the local choir. Its September event showcased four relocators now living and working remotely in Kinvara, Valentia Island, Dingle and Sneem.

In Dublin, a scramble for top talent in recent years had companies dangling in-house bakeries, wellness rooms, gyms, street food counters, swimming pools, climbing walls and even an LED “digital lake” floor to lure staff. But the exercise bikes stand idle. Talent that can now work from anywhere is choosing to work near actual lakes, sea swimming, mountains, local bakeries and the wellness of a life closer to nature. Blue-sky thinking under actual blue skies.

“Our team is now responding to more than 100 queries a week from people looking for information on regional locations,” says Keogh. “It’s a mix of those abroad and elsewhere in Ireland. Our research shows those looking to make a move are searching for information on co-working spaces, local meet-ups, outdoor activities, and the big questions around housing, childcare and affordability.”

Surfers paradise

Jobs that are remote until Covid-19 abates are not remote jobs, commentators warn. But some emigrants are using the current period of remote working to try out life back in Ireland for size. One New York-based Irish bidder on Flanagan’s books says he can now work from anywhere.

"His work can be done remotely, he doesn't need to be in New York. He may have to go back in two years, but not in a full-time capacity. He expects to be able to work remotely from Sligo for a large portion of the year There are a lot of people who are renting houses for six or 12 months here, people from the IT sector, from Google or other employers you'd be familiar with," says Flanagan.

The surf at Strandhill and Rosses Point, in particular, are big draws. Facebook has said that its 48,000 employees, 4,000 of whom are in Dublin, will be able to switch to remote working this year. Twitter has told staff they can work remotely "forever". With such flexibility, there is little to stop US-based Irish colleagues from returning to try Ireland on for size. Amid the Trump administration's continued mishandling of the pandemic, the outcome of the US presidential election in November may well be a tipping point.

Those mixing working and living in different countries will need to square their tax status with Revenue and their employers. Tax residence depends on the number of days you are present in Ireland during a tax year. You are resident in Ireland for tax purposes if you are here for a total of 183 days or more in a tax year or 280 days or more in a tax year plus the previous tax year taken together, with a minimum of 30 days in each year.

Of course, you could just up sticks altogether. US billion-dollar shopping site Overstock is one of the increasing number of tech, pharma and biomed companies located west of the Shannon. It employs 100 people in Sligo and wants to “shout it from the rooftops” that it is hiring.

“We are a technology company attracting those who want to work with cutting-edge technology and live in the west coast of Ireland,” says the company’s director of organisational development Lucia Macari.

With virus rates continuing to grow in many states, the impact on college education in the US is focusing minds

One such person is data engineer Stephen Bourke, a former Nasa employee who returned to his native Sligo with his wife and two children to join Overstock.

“The culture and drive of the company is derived from people that want to live in a small coastal town, have access to affordable houses, no waiting lists for schools, and all the while not scarifying their technical careers. We are keen to give people that had to emigrate the opportunity to get the job and the lifestyle they want.”

Ireland of scholars

For some emigrants, the prospect of paying huge fees for their children to attend US colleges has often been a trigger to return, says Ray O'Neill of Sherry FitzGerald O'Neill in Skibbereen. Tuition there can cost up to $40,000 a year. "These people are in good jobs in New York or wherever and suddenly their kids are 14 or 15 and they want them to go to college in Ireland. If they don't move back to Ireland at that stage, they will pay through the nose."

With virus rates continuing to grow in many states, the impact on college education in the US is focusing minds. Parents are unhappy that some colleges where their entire academic year will be done remotely have not cut fees. They are spending a lot for a year spent on a laptop at home. By contrast, Irish citizens resident in the EU for at least three years of the five years preceding college can be eligible for free tuition.

O’Neill in Skibbereen reports “an incredible amount of email inquiries” from would-be buyers. They are looking for good quality family homes and they have budgets of €400,000 and upwards. Despite demand, the problem is it’s not easy to fly in and view property right now.

The pent-up demand is such that in September Sherry FitzGerald ran a full-page ad in the weekend edition of the Financial Times, aimed squarely at emigrant readers browned-off with politics and the handling of Covid-19 in their adopted countries.

The spread was a heady mix of big gardens, sea views and period house charm. Prices of the high-end homes advertised, ranging from €2.3 million to €7.9 million, were listed in sterling and US dollars.

The dig at political upheaval in the US and the UK was clear – returning house buyers would find an Ireland that was “liberal” and “pro-European”, where “our government abides by international treaties!” Further online ads targeting the diaspora bid them to “Tar abhaile”.

The pandemic is hastening existing trends, not creating new ones, economists say. Emigrants returning is not a new trend, but the political upheaval and uncertainty in their adopted countries, coupled with a pandemic, may well be hastening their return to the green, green grass of home.