We live in an increasingly uncertain world, and with signs of more unrest and disruption on the horizon for 2017 the time may have come for real estate investors to reconsider their positions. Whether 2016 was the annus horribilis it was branded by certain sections of the media, it certainly witnessed a number of once-in-a-generation — possibly lifetime — events.

Last June — as we are being reminded continually by the latest ramifications of the United Kingdom’s EU referendum — there was the Brexit vote, then Turkey experienced an attempted coup in July and Donald Trump upset the US political applecart in November by winning the presidential election. A referendum in Italy in December 2016 brought down the government and we can anticipate considerable political turmoil in 2017, as the countries named above deal with their situations and as France, Germany and the Netherlands stage general elections.

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