Mat Oakley

None of the major European cities could cater for that kind of demand at the click of fingers or even with six months notice, the markets across Europe are pretty tight in terms of vacancy rates and lenders are so risk averse in terms of speculative office development that a bank would have to do a pre-let (commit to rent a property before it has been built), or buy a site.

...The practicalities of hiring or moving 1,000-5,000 staff to comparatively small markets in Ireland, France or Germany were so spectacularly difficult, they couldn't envisage moving lock, stock and barrel, nOT ALL OR NOTHING.