Loading ...LONDON – At Sharps Pixley, a gold showroom in London’s smart Mayfair district, demand for bullion bars and coins is rising, with men and women of all ages buying up the safe-haven metal in case of a British exit from the European Union. Shoppers can walk out of the sleek St James’s Street showroom carrying their gold investments, or leave them in the rows of safety deposit boxes that line the walls.
Sales have picked up since the latest polls suggested that the ‘leave’ campaign is gaining support, with online polls by ICM and YouGov showing at the weekend it had taken a 4 to 5 percentage point lead ahead of the June 23 referendum. “It seems to have sunk into people’s consciousness that Brexit is a real possibility now. All stocks are being bought out in advance of even being shipped,” Ross Norman, chief executive of Sharps Pixley said, noting that demand for Britannia coins, which as legal currency are exempt from capital gains tax, had been particularly strong. “We had a preconception of who the typical gold buyer was, which is male, mature and over 45. The mix of people coming through has completely rebuffed that idea — they’re often much younger, often female.”