Luxury Market Review

Ups and downs in the luxury world. Well….. mostly downs actually. The credit crunch is taking a high toll amongst the luxury suppliers, particularly in luxury automobiles and properties.

Luxury Automobiles

Saab

Saab, never a profitable company, are apparently just days away from bankruptcy. The owners, General Motors, are attempting to hold the Swedish government to ransom and requesting a donation of £400 million to keep the company going long enough to sell it. Not going to fly this one I feel. And Saab should have stuck to making airplane engines.

Aston Martin

Aston Martin are laying off staff even as they are being given awards by other car makers for making very expensive cars. Pity they can't make any money out of them too.

Mini Cooper

BMW have annoyed everyone in sight by firing all their contractors at the Cowley plant in Oxford. Makes you wonder if it is possible to make money making cars. Or rather makes you wonder what the management of these companies think they are doing.

The luxury car market is in a mess, no question. In fact, the automobile market is in a mess. Toyota posted losses last year, so if they can't make money selling cars I very much doubt any iof the behemoths such as GM can.

Luxury property

The luxury property market is taking a beating as well. Perhaps not as bad as the auto makers (yet) and luxury handbag suppliers, but  luxury property prices in Hong Kong dropped 30% in three months. Ouch! London's prices are falling at a slighly lower pace, perhaps due to a weak pound, but the word is no one is buying anything until we know how much the bankers stole from the economy. Not hearing jail time being mentioned just yet as it appears the banks are above the law. That may change when we eventually discover there is not enough money to fill the black hole created by betting on property prices.

In the meantime a few bargains are starting to surface. A luxury villa for sale in Thailand is on the market for 13.9 million baht, and if you are interested in a condominium in Aruba, $50 million will buy you a block of 45.