Why are Kuwaitis Leading the Way in British Property Investment?

A Kuwaiti delegation consisting of Minister of Finance Mustafa Al-Shamali, Director of taxes and planning Hamed Al-Nasser, international agreements inspector Abdulaziz Al-Sallal, Chief of investment agreements Ali Al-Muteirif, and the Director of Al-Shamali's office Khalid Al-Ruweih.

Finance Minister Al-Shamali has reportedly said: Kuwait's relations with the UK are strong and deeply-rooted, especially in the economic domain, as Kuwait tops the UK's list of real estate investors.

This surprised me at first but, is it really all that surprising or unbelievable that foreign investors in British real estate would be predominantly from Kuwait?

Kuwaiti relations with Great Britain are indeed strong and good, everyone can see the value in prime British property presented by the weak Pound, and oil wealth is about all that was left standing by the crunch.

On top of that: Britain will always have a very special place in the heart of Kuwaitis because of the role we played in liberating them from the invasion by the maniacal Saddam Hussein.

They are probably thankful to America as well but there are two reasons why they are coming to Britain to buy property, and not going to America:

A: An Arab government and/or monarchy lives or dies by the perception of its relationship with the US. Kuwait's wealthy would be targeted for investing money that could end up in Israel's pocket or arsenal

B: When NATO forces liberated Kuwait, then US President Bush senior incited uprisings, the Kurdish rose-up in the North, and the Shiites in the south against Saddam and his Sunni followers on the promise of US support coming across the border on the tail of Saddam's forces from Kuwait. When this support never materialised thousands of Shiites and Kurdish were killed in reprisals

Al-Shamali who arrived in London Wednesday evening told KUNA that he would sign an agreement to further boost cooperation between the Great Britain and Kuwait in the real estate field during his official two-day visit.

Kuwait is aiming at attracting foreign investments by amending some regulations and introducing others to its financial policy, he noted. The state is seeking the "experience and technology that foreign investments would add." Bilateral investment ties were launched back in 1953 with Kuwaiti government investments, he said.