International Property Brokers and Financial Bailouts | What’s next?
Today Gordon Brown announced £37bn bailout out of Britain’s major 4 banking institutions, Royal Bank of Scotland(RBS), Lloyds TSB, HBOS plc and Barclays. Just 5 days ago, same pair, Gordon Brown and Alistair Darling suggested to inject £25bn to rescue British banking industry. Within a weekend it grew up to £37bn!
With the announcement, British general public became almost half of the banking institutes owner - RBS, Lloyds TSB, HBOS, Branford and Bingley, Nothern Rock …. how is next for bailout?
Amazingly, just 1 year ago, no one predicted this situation. London was the prime location of international property investments and the centre of international property brokers and buyers. I remember those days –No. 1 Hyde Park became the most expensive property in the world. I don’t think that type of high range property brokers and buyers are not affected with this financial crisis but the condition is totally changed in last 12/15 months. In my local area, in last 2 years, at least 10 estate agents started their businesses - property business was booming and both local and international property brokers were making thousands.
I guess the worst is yet to come – just recent news on the londonpaper, a freely distributed newspaper in London stated that researchers predict 60,000 job loss by end of next year!
For some, financial crisis is not bad at all - such as Sir Philip Green. If you don’t know him, just a little introduction - he is a billionaire and owner of few British High-Street fashion labels like - Topshop, Bhs etc. Now he is in Iceland to complete £1bn takeover deals of several financially critical chains. He has offered to bail out the Icelandic owners of Hamleys, House of Fraser and the Iceland supermarkets. The firms are all owned by Baugur. If the deal goes ahead, he will be the majority shareholder in the group with control over its 2,000 stores. Baugur’s companies employ about 53,000 people in more than 3,700 stores, with a turnover of £5bn.
I’ve no knowledge about finance and how it works. But apparently people are blaming banks for this crisis and the publics’ endless hunger for property. Time will write the fate of property industry, property brokers and banking principles.
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