Golden Oldie
Latest Article
28th October 2020
This article was originally published in January 2020.
As UK agriculture faces major funding changes, one important resource should not be overlooked in developing sustainable farming systems
Those who remember farming in the decades after the second world war, especially the 1970s, will know that the emphasis was very much on production. Arable farmers were encouraged and even incentivised to utilise every hectare (or acre, as it was then) of their land for production. Hedges and trees were... Read More >
Recent Articles:
26th October 2020
This article was originally published in April 2020.
Activists who condemn all livestock agriculture indiscriminately might want to consider the ecological benefits of pasture.
At Montague farm we raise organic, grass-fed, single-suckled Read More >
21st October 2020
This article was originally published in April 2020.
A writer introduces his three go-to reads – short stories by JD Salinger and Denis Johnson, and a volume of essays and reviews by Martin Amis
For almost every author, writing fiction Read More >
21st October 2020
This article was originally published in spring 2020.
For those about to emerge from university and enter the world of property, a few words of advice.
As we enter 2020, I find myself engrossed in the new Star Trek series, ‘Picard’. Read More >
20th October 2020
This article was originally published in
Housing shortages in Europe’s cities are driving a rise in tenant protections such as rent control, but that needn’t be a bad thing for investors.
Europe’s best cities are booming. With their Read More >
14th October 2020
This article was originally published in August 2019.
Challenging the opinion that only the wealthiest can buy Banksy art
Banksy’s art hit the headlines in October 2018 when a piece of artwork self-destructed in the midst of an auction. Read More >
13th October 2020
This article was originally published in February 2020.
Talk about a long-term hold – it took 10 million years just to form the spinning flat disc that was later to become our solar system.
The best theory we have today about how the Read More >
12th October 2020
This article was originally published in April 2019.
The birthplace of the skyscraper overflows with famous buildings – but none as stunning as a lesser-known piece of architecture, Bertrand Goldberg’s brutalist ‘city within a Read More >
8th October 2020
This article was originally published in October 2019.
Saying I favour a no-deal Brexit in order to buy property cheaply after a resulting crash was wrong – and illogical.
Newsnight is a programme I have watched for years, with a great Read More >
7th October 2020
This article was originally published in November 2019.
Hermitage is the supreme expression of the Syrah grape, but little recognised – making it a bargain among the Rhônes.
There’s a regular tale of customer woe, familiar to all wine Read More >
1st October 2020
This article was first published in May 2018.
Investing is usually a matter of judgment as well as calculation. What will do well, and what will do best over the period you envisage? Investing in books -- or art of any kind -- includes this Read More >
30th September 2020
This article was first published in April 2018.
The answer is none of them... or for that matter, any of the other big names that have been filling the front pages of The Art Newspaper, The Telegraph or the New York Times for the last generation Read More >
30th September 2020
This article was first published in September 2017.
I’m regularly appalled at the banality of post-match - or at least post-achievement - interviews of sports people still dripping from their efforts. As if it isn’t enough to hijack Read More >
24th September 2020
This article was originally published in August 2019.
(Oliver is joint-owner of Maidstone Utd FC, Director of Brive Rugby Club in French Top 14 and recent Board Member of The National League.)
Right now there is a heated debate on social Read More >
23rd September 2020
This article was originally published in November 2019.
Pricing vintage comics isn’t just about scarcity and quality – the characters are the key to value.
“Comic books to me are fairy tales for grown-ups.” So said renowned Read More >
22nd September 2020
This article was originally published in November 2019.
From blue-chips like Damien Hirst to rising stars like Sterling Ruby, these are the names whose values are on the rise.
The global art market reached $67.4bn in 2018 and has grown Read More >
16th September 2020
This article was originally published on 3 July 2019.
Listening to the Today programme a voice from my past comes over the airwaves. Lord, Kenneth of old, Baker was explaining how the toppling of Theresa compared to the Tory Read More >
15th September 2020
This article was originally published in July 2018.
Since the rotating of shadows around rudimentary sticks planted in the ground, man has had an affinity for plotting the course of time. Different mechanisms, from sundials to pendulums and Read More >
9th September 2020
This article was originally published on 8 August 2018.
Fitting in as a fifty-something in a country so diametrically different from one’s own is no easy thing. Apart from the obvious; you know, driving on the wrong side of the road, cars Read More >
8th September 2020
This article was originally published on 11 April 2018.
I received a text message recently from the tenant of our converted granary. It requested that I telephone her immediately, there was a problem requiring my urgent attention. On calling, Read More >
7th September 2020
This article was originally published on 30 April 2018.
The recent completion of the hugely expensive new US Embassy in London and the continued controversy around the US decision to relocate its embassy to Jerusalem brings back memories of our Read More >
3rd September 2020
ARTICLE ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED APRIL 2018
Dawn no more than a sliver of grey light on the distant horizon. Darkness not going down without a fight. Shadows flickering hither and thither across the stable yard. Feeding done. Water buckets to fill. Read More >
2nd September 2020
ARTICLE ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED APRIL 2018
John Shotto Douglas, the ninth Marquess of Queensberry, has two major claims to fame. First he was the nemesis of gay author Oscar Wilde who sued him for libel after he had publicly objected to the liaison Read More >
1st September 2020
ARTICLE ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED SEPTEMBER 2018
Pierre Chareau is not a name that springs to mind when contemplating the great architects or designers from a previous era. Whilst Chareau is best remembered for his furniture designs, this singular Read More >
26th August 2020
ARTICLE ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED 26TH FEBRUARY 2018
In this commentary I review the years since my return to the family industry (the most recent of them managing third party capital into agriculture, via Craigmore Sustainables LLP). I conclude with Read More >
25th August 2020
ARTICLE ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED 23RD FEBRUARY 2018
I have, for the last 18 years, had the pleasure of running First Property Group plc, a small listed property company with a market value of £52 million, which I founded and which invests in the Read More >
24th August 2020
ARTICLE ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED 9TH APRIL 2018
Welcome to my sport column – An occasional look at various commercial sides of the sports industry which ultimately deliver the live events we enjoy.
The Premier League is the single most valuable Read More >
12th August 2020
ARTICLE ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED 23RD OCTOBER 2017
As a shepherd, it is important for me to know the value of a sheep. This is tested when attending a sheep auction, when I will need to be decisive and disciplined in sticking to an assessment. The Read More >
11th August 2020
ARTICLE ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED 11TH NOVEMBER 2017
Dear Editor,
We have entered the season of early, dark nights. Some enjoy closing the curtains, lighting the fires and settling in for the evening: some pine for the longer days and more time Read More >
10th August 2020
ARTICLE ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED 19TH DECEMBER 2017
Excited to start their new jobs in real estate private equity and experience the life of glamour and money in finance, Jordan and Patrick are hit by the sobering reality that is London Read More >
6th August 2020
ARTICLE ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED 12TH FEBRUARY 2018
My visit to Yale was not to study a post graduate degree but happily for me to look at the extraordinary range of Modernist Architecture over the length and breadth of their campus.
I was aware Read More >
5th August 2020
ARTICLE ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED 9th MAY 2018
Introduction – the danger of being a farmer at MBA school (or at a dinner party)
MBA schools characterise farming as a commodity industry, subject to negative weather events and low returns. Farmers are Read More >
4th August 2020
ARTICLE ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED 17TH SEPTEMBER 2018
The online retail business is 11% of the total world wide retail sales and 16% of the UK’s. In both cases it seems to be growing at about 1% per annum but with signs of a slowdown in the more Read More >
29th July 2020
ARTICLE ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED 13TH OCTOBER 2017
In a conscious echo of Harold Macmillan who oversaw the construction of more than 300,000 mostly local authority houses in 1953, the Prime Minister recently announced that her government is Read More >
28th July 2020
Above: The opening of the account roll of University College, Oxford, for 1383-4
© The Master and Fellows of University College, Oxford
ARTICLE ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED 21ST NOVEMBER 2017
Few organisations, apart from cathedrals, can rival Read More >
27th July 2020
ARTICLE ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED 17TH JANUARY 2018
Real estate, golf courses and Florida sunshine have long gone together, but not always happily. It is to a golf complex in Florida (the wonderfully-named Valhalla Village) that novelist John Updike, Read More >
22nd July 2020
ARTICLE ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED 1ST OCTOBER 2018
This month, as guest at one of England’s most famous and senior golf clubs, I was reminded of the brutality of the real estate investment business. A tall, broad smiling, full haired, Read More >
21st July 2020
ARTICLE ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED 8TH SEPTEMBER 2018
The market players are different and the transactions are significantly more complex than 30 years ago
Perhaps the long hot summer in continental Europe is not the most prudent time to review Read More >
20th July 2020
ARTICLE ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED SEPTEMBER 2018
In my last article I set out my company’s broad approach to investing in commercial property and in Poland in particular. I thought it might be interesting for anyone considering investing in Poland Read More >
15th July 2020
ARTICLE ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED AUGUST 16TH 2017
About thirty years ago I remember my stepfather, a well-known man of considerable standing, surprising me by telling me I was in a ‘gentleman’s profession’. OK, he was quite old, but amongst Read More >
15th July 2020
ARTICLE ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED JANUARY 15TH 2018
I spent Christmas in Northern California this year and met up with friends whilst in San Francisco. Given that I was in the world’s tech hub, it didn’t take long for the conversation to turn to Read More >
14th July 2020
ARTICLE ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED 27TH OCTOBER 2017
Given time, most industries develop a jargon which allows participants to exude a professional glow and some degree of intellectual superiority when addressing outsiders (especially when poised to Read More >
9th July 2020
ARTICLE ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED NOVEMBER 2017
This is the last in a series of four articles on the history of British racecourses and their struggle for economic prosperity. It focuses on Towcester - an independent, and a prime example of the Read More >
Architecture without architects On Scandinavian design influences and how our surroundings affect us
8th July 2020
ARTICLE ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED NOVEMBER 2017.
This title has been borrowed from Bernard Rudofsky, a Moravian-born American writer, architect, and social historian who published an influential book of the same name in 1964. It has the subtitle 'A Read More >
6th July 2020
ARTICLE ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED 14th DECEMBER 2017
At this time of year, we are inundated with nostalgic images of a Victorian Christmas set in a Dickensian London where the real horrors and poverty of that age are banished from the chocolate box Read More >
1st July 2020
ARTICLE ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED 5TH DECEMBER 2017
Over many years of working on numerous projects, I have always drawn inspiration from the work of some of the great architects from the past (borrowing from the past to enhance the future). Probably Read More >
30th June 2020
INTERVIEW ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED NOVEMBER 2ND 2017
Veritable housing soothsayer Tony Pidgley turned 70 in August, and in September, Berkeley was re-admitted to the FTSE 100 for the second time - its share price hitting a new all-time high. Mr Read More >
29th June 2020
ARTICLE ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED 17TH NOVEMBER 2017
Richard Thaler was awarded the Nobel Prize for Economics in October 2017 for his work in behavioural economics. His citation refers to his contribution to building a bridge between economic and Read More >
25th June 2020
ARTICLE ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED 21ST AUGUST 2017
As I touched upon in my last article, long term out-performance is the principal aim for a residential investor in our era of lower returns.
Residential investment is a completely different mindset Read More >
24th June 2020
ARTICLE ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED 25TH SEPTEMBER 2017
Shipping carries over 90% of world trade. Until anti-gravity transport is invented nothing will replace it. This island race has salt water and shipping in our veins and history. As befits our Read More >
23rd June 2020
ARTICLE ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED 22ND SEPTEMBER 2017
I started my real estate career in the early 1980s, so over 30 years ago! I have been involved in many areas of UK real estate during that period, both cosseted in booms and fighting for survival Read More >
18th June 2020
INTERVIEW ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED AUGUST 2ND 2017
Thanks to a successful 40 year career as a property developer and investor, David Lewis has created significant assets, but is better known today for his extraordinary art collection than for his Read More >
17th June 2020
ARTICLE ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED AUGUST 15TH 2017
I have just returned from my old and dear friends’ week-long 25th wedding anniversary celebration at Wyntoon, the 60,000 acre Hearst estate located near Mt. Shasta in Northern California. William Read More >
10th June 2020
ARTICLE ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED MAY 25TH 2017
Property rights lie at the heart of civilisation - not just in terms of commerce, but in the ability to safeguard long term interests and express natural territorial needs. Whether it is a farm such as Read More >
9th June 2020
ARTICLE ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED JULY 5TH 2017
In 2008, financial institutions across the globe were engulfed by waves emanating from an over-extended US property sector. The problems surfaced in the ‘shadow’ banking sector, where much of the Read More >
6th June 2020
ARTICLE ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED 19TH MAY 2017
In 1982, my uncle’s family was thrilled by some good news. The head of the family, my uncle Xiang, had been allocated a new apartment unit by his employer, which was the largest state-owned company in Read More >
4th June 2020
ARTICLE ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED SPRING 2019
Collectors may be driven by obsession – but are toys also a viable investment asset?
There is a big difference between an investor and a collector. The former gives up capital today in the Read More >
3rd June 2020
ARTICLE ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED SPRING 2019
The English mania for seaside holidays predated the railways – but the arrival of the steam train supercharged it
Seaside resorts and inland watering places have a long history in England. “One Read More >
2nd June 2020
ARTICLE ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED SPRING 2019
I am going to have to repair the farm drive
In the depth of winter we begin to organise summer farm maintenance. This year we plan repairs to the farm drive.
We have a treelined avenue that Read More >
28th May 2020
ARTICLE ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED 27th MARCH 2019
How a whisky magnate’s daughter fought to build a skyscraper that still takes the breath away
I must confess that I am not a huge fan of skyscrapers – or ‘cloud busters’ as they Read More >
28th May 2020
ARTICLE ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED SPRING 2019
The subsidies disappeared all at once – but farming on the bottom of the world is more profitable than ever
The prospect of Britain’s departure from the Europe an Union is creating demand for Read More >
27th May 2020
ARTICLE ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED SPRING 2019
Slammed as a device of weak-wristed cads, a new ball managed to take over the entire sport within a few years
Sports change – rules are modified, equipment is improved, and skills are Read More >
21st May 2020
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED 13th MAY 2019
Established talent is being hoovered up – where are all the start-ups vying for their place?
Small real estate investment managers are becoming a critically endangered species across Europe as Read More >
21st May 2020
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED 10th MAY 2019
European commercial property has changed a lot in the last 30 years, and this building had a front-row seat for it all
A recent ride up in the lift of Cœur Défense in Paris shouldn’t have been Read More >
19th May 2020
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED 24th APRIL 2019
And why other property professionals get lumped with the bad guy roles
“I don’t build in order to have clients, I have clients in order to build!” raves Howard Roark, the architect hero of the Read More >
14th May 2020
(Article originally published Summer 2018)
Why agility is key for investors in dealing with new uncertainties
Seattle is the only market I’ve ever seen advance from secondary to primary market status. There are a few other secondary Read More >
6th May 2020
Originally published February 2018.
The UAE's appetite for attracting the great and the good (and sometimes the bad and the ugly) remains impressive. This week, Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates, hosted the first Milken Read More >
29th April 2020
Robert Parker. For years, the wine trade was in thrall to this most influential of wine journalists. If you were a ‘vigneron’, his score out of 100 could make or break your bottle; similarly, if you were a merchant, those same points might be Read More >
28th April 2020
Derwent London, the company I have worked for over the last 34 years, have built a variety of office buildings over that period. So, on this occasion, I’ve decided to choose one of them and add it to my list of favourite buildings.
I Read More >
5th April 2020
I am a LinkedIn new boy or, in the jargon, a late adopter. I didn’t join until last year, and now I realise that its main use is to approach total strangers with whom you might do business. What it is not is an interesting platform for Read More >
6th January 2020
EPRA’s new best practice recommendations for NAV calculations, which kick in this January, introduce three discrete NAV measures to replace the old ones. Are you ready?
It is well known that the UK listed sector (in aggregate) currently Read More >
16th August 2018
This article was originally published in August 2018.
Our archaeologists excavated Ten Trinity Square beside the Tower of London, as part of the development of a luxury hotel and residential development by Reignwood Group. Occupied since the Read More >
1st August 2018
(Article originally published Summer 2018)
Part one: What do recent rises in interest rates mean for property prices?
US 10-year Treasury Bill rates have been at an all-time low, having fallen below 2% for the first time in 2017.
UK Read More >
Featuring
Face to Face
In-depth interviews with leading figures in the real estate/investment world.
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