Author Archives: Trevor Abrahmsohn

A real Chinese takeaway

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The Chinese government has much to answer for at the moment, as the world suffers 500,000 Covid-induced deaths and has cost probably ten trillion dollars worth of reparations to underpin the global economies.

Quite apart from the vexed Huawei 5G issues, which the government is trying to unravel as we speak, there’s even more trouble in Beijing’s backyard, as President Xi and his cronies tighten the imperialistic legal controls on Hong Kong citizens, in order to bring them – forcibly – under Communist dictatorship. Continue reading →

Mr Sunak, don’t do a half job on Stamp Duty on Wednesday’s Mini-Budget – do it properly, or not at all

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As the press media would have us believe, apart from tinkering with VAT, it looks as though Mr Sunak is going to raise the threshold of Stamp Duty as a limp gesture, for a year, to get the residential property market off its knees.

I’m wondering who is, today, advising the Treasury about the state of the residential market? Whoever they may be, the truth is that as a direct result of the government-backed scheme – Right-to-Buy – this has been stoking up the lower end of the market, for some time now. Frankly, activity in this sector has been quite brisk and doesn’t really need any further stimulation. Continue reading →

Former Hampstead home of King Constantine II of Greece, sold by Glentree; venue for luminaries and glitterati, including the Late Princess Diana and her two Princes

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Glentree Estates

Former Hampstead home of King Constantine II of Greece, sold by Glentree; venue for luminaries and glitterati, including the Late Princess Diana and her two Princes

Not all is lost with Covid-19. Jonathan Wein at Glentree, has been cracking open the ouzo in celebration of the sale of ex-King Constantine II of Greece’s former London ‘palace’ in Hampstead Garden Suburb which, despite the lockdown, managed to sell for over £6million.

There is a pleasing dramatic flourish to the story, since originally the King bought the property in the early 70s, from the serial entrepreneur, Bob Tanner – joint founder of Glentree International – for the princely sum of £325,000, at the time. Continue reading →