The effects of the Brexit, British withdrawal from the European Union, are still ongoing and seems to be taking a great toll on the economy. Britain left the EU due to a big trade deficit they have with the other EU countries. Although Britain only accounts for a small fraction of EU’s exports, the EU makes up almost half of Britain’s exports. Evidently, Britain’s withdrawal from the EU was a huge financial mistake.

Brexit caused the pound to crash to below $1.30, which is lower than the value that it was during the 2008 financial crisis. It is currently at its lowest value since 1985. And this is only the beginning. Many thought that Britain’s departure from the EU wouldn’t really cause any major financial crisis. However, the uncertainly that surrounds this matter and the drop in the value of the pound are major concerns for financial markets and it is the biggest source for their unease towards trade and Brexit itself. As a result, property funds have scrambled to stop trade out of fear.

Many commercial property funds have joined the three of United Kingdom’s largest real estate funds, Standard Life, Aviva Investors, and M&G, in holding off from trade. These three real estate funds have frozen a bit under 10 billion pounds worth of assets after Brexit happened. Standard Life has stopped its 2.9 billion-pound U.K. real estate fund. Aviva Investors has halted its 1.8 billion-pound Property Trust. And M&G has frozen its 4.4 billion-pound Property Portfolio fund.

Due to these massive freezes, investors tried to quickly withdraw their funds. The amount of investor redemptions in these funds have risen sharply due to the doubt and insecurity that currently surrounds the UK commercial property market. This withdrawal had to be halted simply because these real estate funds just don’t have the cash to pay for all of these investors. Despite the harm that this withdrawal is doing to the economy, these financial markets believe that given the current situation, it was best to temporarily suspend trading.

With the European stock markets continuing to drop, the fear and stress only increases in the EU. And it’s only going to get worse. It’ll be a long while because these funds are able to pay back the withdrawals. On top of that, nations outside of the EU are holding off from making further trade deals with Britain. This economic crisis that followed the Brexit vote is real. Only time will tell how much worse their economy will fall.