Global Matters Weekly – 23 March 2020

(iI) Liquidity of Property
by Jackson Franks

As we temporarily enter a new way of living, I spent Wednesday night giving my grandparents a step by step guide on creating a Skype account. After a good 45 minutes (which felt like weeks) and a lot of patience we managed to complete the process. They couldn’t quite believe that they could see me and me them as we sat down to eat dinner together via Skype. With my Grandpa’s interest in the financial markets, especially the real estate sector, we had a lot to talk about considering six UK open-ended property funds were suspended last week with the expectation that others will follow this week.


Market Snapshot

  • The rapid spread of COVID-19 has led to the continued lockdown of parts of Europe and the US, although a steady slowdown in cases is being seen in Italy
  • Global equity markets declined 12.2% over the past week
  • Brent crude fell 20.3% ending the week at $27.0 a barrel
  • Gold fell 2.0% ending the week at $1498.7 an ounce