The pound cranked up another half cent or so against the US dollar yesterday, as the world’s ‘reserve currency’ continued to suffer. It’s certainly doing poorly against sterling, trading at around its lowest levels of the past two years. But it’s against the euro that USD is really flailing, currently at its weakest for two years.
Meanwhile, as we head into August, GBP/EUR continues to bump along at the kind of rate we’ve come to expect over the past four years, but certainly better than in most recent summers.
The business headlines have all been about gold being the favoured hedge against inflation, as investors worry about how central banks are going to get themselves out of debt. That will be the focus as the US Federal Reserve makes its interest rate decision today.
Overseas property, of course, is another investment that you can enjoy even while it – normally – makes you money. Although data on recent property price movements is still sketchy and largely anecdotal, and estate agents are keen to point out that there is not a fire sale of overseas properties going on, it would be surprising if many vendors abroad were not willing to take an offer.
This is also the first summer in a while that you will get any activity from French, Spanish, Italian and Portuguese property professionals (estate agents, lawyers, notaries etc), many of whom are not talking their usual August vacation.
If you wish to take advantage of this strange summer to secure your future, do call your trader on 020 8108 5337.
And if you make an offer on a property, I cannot stress enough the importance of taking out a forward contract to protect yourself from exchange rate changes mid-purchase.
