With the Referendum on EU membership out of the way, our households can concentrate on something European that doesn’t involve political broadcasts, or politician’s treating us all like children – the Euro 2016 Football Tournament. Peckham is home to a wide range of nationalities, so if you’re not lucky enough to be in France for the UEFA Euro 2016 football tournament, have no fear! For a bit of fun (although there is a serious side to this), I have looked at which European people live in Peckham, so I know who to cheer on in the latter stages.

First of all the odds for Euro 2016!  France was 3/1 favourite’s, then Germany 7/2, third Spain 11/2, then England 9/1, Italy 16/1, Poland 50/1, Romania and Wales at 100/1, Ireland at 150/1 and Northern Ireland 500/1 – remember, Leicester were 5000/1 at the start of last season!

In terms of those people living in the Camberwell and Peckham constituencies of Southwark, who are from the Euro 2016 home nations – of the 125,226 residents, 71,366 of them are from England, 758 from Wales, 538 from Northern Ireland and 1,932 from Ireland, although I do feel sorry for the 1,368 Scots, who didn’t get into the finals.

Now interestingly, looking at the Mainland Europeans residents in the same area, it might not surprise you that they make up 7.46% of the population of the Camberwell and Peckham constituencies as a whole.  4.45% are from Western Europe and 3.01% from the Accession Countries of Eastern Europe.

Broken down into the relevant football teams, there are in the Camberwell and Peckham constituencies …

1,152 French people

769 Germans

1,045 Italians

738 Spanish

1,556 Poles

253 Romanians

… I feel sorry for the Romanian football supporters in Peckham!

But what does this have to do with the Peckham property market? Quite a lot in fact. Many of these people were economic migrants, especially those from Eastern Europe.  A lot of people’s concerns over migration are exaggerated, as this EU migration has acted to fill gaps in skills and the labour supply.  During the growth periods of the mid 2000’s, and subsequently over the last five years in Peckham, EU migrants have done little to displace native workers, rather, they do the jobs us Brits don’t often want to do.

There should be no preferential treatment for council housing in Peckham, so EU migrants have in fact increased demand for privately rented accommodation in the area. This has meant, as demand for housing in Peckham has remained strong, Peckham landlords have continued to buy properties to rent out to keep up with this demand. Therefore, the value of every homeowner’s property in Peckham has been kept high because of the demand from these Peckham landlords buying starter homes to rent out.  This has in turn released existing homeowners to go up the property ladder – benefiting everyone in the chain.

However, rents have remained relatively subdued, in Peckham, rents are actually 27.6% higher than they were in 2005, but when you consider we have had 38.52% inflation over the same period rents have actually dropped in real terms for Peckham landlords.  On the flipside Landlords have experienced massive captial growth.

EU migration has meant existing homeowners, landlords and the economy as a whole in Peckham, and the UK, have benefitted from better economic conditions and property prices remaining stable, while rents have been kept in check by wage inflation. Now I wonder who will win the footy? Back to the TV!