Poms go home, lured by cheap pound CHRIS ZAPPONE
March 25, 2010 - 1:41PM

The dollar's 25-year high against the pound and soaring housing prices are prompting some British residents to return to the Sceptred Isle.

Adding to the urge to return is the slump in UK real estate values, creating an attractive disparity in prices for Brits who own property in Australia. While UK prices have bounced back from their lows, they remain on average 12 per cent below their peak, and may remain subdued by a sluggish local economy.

Manchester-born Harrison Brown is one person heading for the departure lounge. Mr Brown is selling the home in Queensland's Gold Coast he bought in December 2008 and moving his family back to live in a home they own north of London.

''We're now going back on Monday,'' said Mr Brown, who had lived in England for 13 years as an adult, and adds that he expects to sell at a ''good profit'' when the house goes to auction in May.

''It's a good time to go back,'' he said. ''I think it's a very good time to be out there with a bit of cash and selling the property out here.''

While reports of a UK repatriation surge remain mostly anecdotal, some in the financial markets detect the shift. Spencer Wilcox, managing director of forex dealing house HiFX, said he noticed the trend at the start of this year, and it's accelerated from ''about 10 kilometres an hour in late December to about 90 kilometres an hour right now.''

Money moving

While Australia's economy boasts better employment prospects than Britain, the rising cost of local housing - up almost 14 per cent last year in capital cities - is prompting some recent arrivals to re-calculate the benefits of staying. Those sums may become more compelling, with analysts such as APM's Matthew Bell predicting house price gains of about 8 per cent in 2010.

HiFX, which conducts about 200 Australian dollar/pound deals a month locally for private clients, said it has seen the 50 per cent jump in the number of individuals selling large amounts of Australian dollars to purchase real estate in the UK, Mr Wilcox said.

''Most English people have a good handle of where the exchange rate is at any time,'' said Mr Wilcox, adding that they often remember the rate they received when they moved to Australia.

The dollar, currently buying about 61 pence, makes it "the best time in 25 years to move back to England," said Mr Wilcox.

A British person who arrived in Australia on April 1, 2006 with 200,000 pounds would have received about $485,000 in exchange, said Mr Wilcox. Had that money been invested in Australian property, it may now be worth about $700,000. At current exchange rates, the person would receive 427,000 pounds - more than double the original sum.

Some British clients are making preparations to make spot transfers and forward hedges on the currency - not necessarily tied to property sales, another forex dealer said.

''We've seen an increase in interest from clients looking to lock in or hedge their currency for future transfer (to the UK)'', said Jim Vrondas, senior foreign exchange manager at Macquarie-owned OzForex.

''That's with a view that the currency is good and the property market in the UK is still pretty subdued and prices are still relatively low,'' he said.

Immigration figures suggest that Australia is also becoming less attractive for Brits. While the UK accounted for the second largest number of immigrants to Australia in the year to June 2009, their numbers dropped 7 per cent to 21,600 people for the year.

That drop compares with a 20 per cent jump in New Zealanders to 33,000, while immigration from India rose about 10 per cent to 17,000 while those from mainland Chinese rose by 15 per cent to about 15,000, according to data from the Department of Immigration and Citizenship.

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