How to stay dynamic & flexible as a business executive

High Net Worth Finance Insights

Tony Keterman (CEO) and Mark Palmer (CCO) both of Hamilton Court FX discuss the current business climate with the CEO of Enness Global, Islay Robinson. Islay discusses the challenges he has had to overcome, how the property market has changed, where the market is going and how he has been able to strengthen his business model to ensure Enness Global are ready for any future economic shifts.

Enness started up during the global financial crisis in 2007 when the founders saw a problem in the property market and the economy as a whole. Banks stopped lending, property prices collapsed, people lost their jobs. When the pandemic started their first expectation was that all of the banks would withdraw from the market, they’d drop their loan-to-value requirements, they wouldn't lend to niche areas. And the property market would collapse.

But this time, that didn't happen. Government intervention was one thing. So that propped up the market and the banks didn't feel like they had to stop lending, which is usually a natural reaction of banks. And then all of a sudden, people started buying houses. Everyone expected the property market to be dead, but the Government fired up the marketplace with the Stamp Duty holiday.

Then people started buying for security reasons; they started buying homes with gardens, with space outside the city where their children would feel safe. And now property prices are higher than they ever have been. So in terms of what changed, lenders started lending more money, and it was phenomenal. And that's happened across Europe. As soon as international travel starts fully happening, we're going to see the Far East buyers come to London, London people going to France and this big movement of people internationally.