A year until Brexit | Effects on Macau yet to materialize

There will be a transition period after Brexit day, but on March 29, 2019, the United Kingdom will formally cease to be a member of the European Union (more on p14). It’s what 52 percent of those who voted in June 2016 wanted. Halfway into the two-year process of leaving the European Union, the impact of Brexit on British nationals living abroad is still yet to materialize.

When the Times interviewed a sample of Macau-based British nationals prior to the 2016 referendum, the consensus view was in favoring of remaining within the economic and political union. Though most in the sample had lost their voting rights – due to a ruling that excludes British citizens who have lived abroad for 15 years or more from participating in the vote – the ubiquitous feeling was that, as expats, they felt a stronger sense of internationalism and solidarity with their European neighbors also living abroad.

Today, they say that nothing’s yet changed, and that they will have to wait to find out the specific terms wrought out in negotiations between Britain and the EU.

But cash-rich investors in the two SARs may be benefiting from the effects of the interim negotiation period – most notably the significant decline in the purchasing power of the pound.

In the immediate aftermath of the June 2016 referendum, the value of the British pound plummeted 8 percent against the U.S. dollar, followed several months later by another fall that took the currency to lows not seen in three decades.

While the pound has recovered most of that loss and is now trading at pre-slump levels, the interim period presented an attractive opportunity for Macau and Hong Kong investors faced with discounted but reliable UK- based assets.

A report by the South China Morning Post suggested that Hong Kong investors are still interested in the British economy despite uncertainty looming in the near and long term.

Quoting UK government officials, the report suggested that the UK property market in particular was benefiting from HKSAR investment; the result of “Britain’s core economic approach as a country welcoming investment from around the globe.”  DB