As state controls recede before the impact of the Single European Market of 1992, London will head the new league of “city states” competing for economic supremacy in Europe.
According to Fletcher King’s report, The Single European Market 1992 — the implications for property, the battle to take greatest advantage of the newly integrated and deregulated market will be fought not by nations but by their leading cities.
“It is not inconceivable that ultimately the impact of competition,” suggests the report, “will result in a scenario not dissimilar from the pre-national ‘City States’ of Europe, perhaps linked by multinational corporations through their common interests, in a fashion similar to the Hanseatic and other trading leagues of previous centuries.”
In the UK, the most effective property investment is seen as being office development around the M25.
London, with its global links, communications network and 19m sq ft of business space, is seen as being well placed to take advantage of the single European market.
“The abolition of currency exchange controls and restrictions on the repatriation of profits from other EEC countries,” argues the report, “will bring new investors, notably the insurance companies and pension funds of currently restricted nations, into the market for non-domestic investment opportunities.”
But the report’s expectations for 1992 are qualified. “Despite the measures proposed, national borders will continue to reinforce Europe’s national differences: languages, tastes, habits and mass media. The single market will, in effect, remain a Europe of national markets that become steadily more accessible.”
