There has been much focus on the London exodus of late, with thousands of workers in the capital taking advantage of new homeworking opportunities this year, largely accelerated by the pandemic, and moving out of the city entirely into larger homes with gardens and extra rooms for an office and/or more children.

This phenomenon, combined with less students moving to London and obviously less tourist arrivals, has resulted in huge job losses in sectors that are popular with EU workers, like retail and hospitality. Then there is Brexit, which is imminently upon us, which is likely to result in less EU workers coming to London once the economy eventually recovers. All of which implies that there could be a lot of empty homes in the capital during the 2020s.

However, the British government’s decision to offer residency to about 3m people in Hong Kong, as its former colony continues to deal with increasing Chinese control, has created a large pool of potential property buyers that could save London from a property price crash.

Boris Johnson announced on 1 July that Hong Kong's freedoms were being violated by a new security law and those affected would be offered a "route" out of the former UK colony. About 350,000 UK passport holders, and 2.6m others that are eligible, will be able to come to the UK for five years. And after a further year, they will be able to apply for citizenship. British National Overseas (BNO) passport holders in Hong Kong were granted special status in the 1980s but currently have restricted rights and are only entitled to visa-free access to the UK for six months.

The response has been emphatic and nearly 60,000 BNO passports for Hong Kong residents were approved in October alone, the equivalent of one every 10 seconds during office hours. It is now widely expected that this will lead to an influx of people emigrating in the coming years and will boost the housing market in the UK. Overall, in the first 10 months of 2020, the UK issued more than 216,000 BNO passports.