The UK voted to leave the EU after 40 years, spurring the resignation of Prime Minister David Cameron and sending markets tumbling.
“The British people have made a very clear decision to take a different path, and as such I think the country requires fresh leadership,” Cameron said.
The pound sunk to its lowest level since 1985, tumbling along with European stocks and Asian equities, while US Treasuries surged—lending credence to the idea investors will see US equities as a safe alternative to the UK, as experts told Bisnow this month.
“Based on what’s been happening over the last year in Britain, any additional disruption in their markets will likely be good news for our markets,” international real estate attorney Edward Mermelstein told Bisnow. “So the likelihood that NYC real estate will benefit from Brexit is very high.”
Post-Brexit sell-offs have thrown the financial markets in turmoil, compounded by market rallies over the past week on optimism that the UK would vote to stay, Bloomberg reports.
The result is a victory for politicians who took on the UK establishment, including members of David Cameron’s own party who formed an alliance with the UK Independence Party (UKIP) to argue the country could fly solo in a globalized era.
“Let June 23rd go down in our history as our Independence Day,” UKIP leader Nigel Farage says. “The euroskeptic genie is out of the bottle and it will now not be put back.”
Prime Minister Cameron says the UK will wait to get a new PM before triggering exit talks—threatening a clash with the EU’s biggest economy, Germany, which plans to push for a quick Brexit.
“There cannot be any special treatment,” says Manfred Weber, a member of German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s party, who heads the conservative EPP group in the European Parliament. “Leave means leave.” [Bloomberg]
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