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22nd September 2023
Now, I find myself having endless chats on internships, which I am told as line items on CVs, pay generous dividends.
Meetings start by me asking the aspirant intern their thoughts on indentured apprenticeships. To this, I invariably receive a look of bemusement and confusion. Confusion because separately the words seem perfectly familiar, but together seemingly odd; bemusement as to why either is relevant in the context of a professional office setting. So, I begin by setting the contextual scene... Read More >
Recent Articles:
18th September 2023
Blackstone (BX) was founded with $500,000 in 1985 by two Lehman partners after a civil war at the I-bank forced its sale to American Express. BX had a meteoric rise from a small LBO boutique in Manhattan to the world's first true alternative Read More >
11th September 2023
Three generations of Gulf Arabs have been enraptured with German luxury auto brands like Mercedes, BMW, Porsche and Audi.
But please, please, do not fall in love with German homes or CRE as the Fatherland faces the mother/mutti of all Read More >
4th September 2023
Increasing signs of distress while debt funds increase their debt fire power for opportunities.
A year after the first increases in interest rates by Central Banks around the world, the CRE debt market is starting to show its distress. Read More >
24th August 2023
I would estimate that over half of all politicians fall into the naïve club that make claims based on assuming nothing will change in response to a new tax, a new regulation or new incentive. For example, they might take the value of all Read More >
14th August 2023
Every private banker and real estate broker I meet assures me that a soft landing is certain and Dubai property's meteoric ascent will continue, as if we did not live through two 60% drawdowns in 2009 and 2014.
My macro crystal ball told me Read More >
7th August 2023
The adaptation to hybrid work continues to shape the modern workplace. Business leaders often hope their teams will spend more time in the office. But they may need to fully comprehend the significance of status-signalling and status-seeking Read More >
31st July 2023
“What’s wrong with that?”
Buzzword of the year so far! The best is getting better, and the worst is getting worse. It applies to the assets and, to a lesser extent, the quoted sector. Driven by property fundamentals and impending Read More >
24th July 2023
Whopping pork pies.
If my Cypriot dad wanted to identify someone as “loose with the truth,” he would call him a Pattihari - Pattiha being the word for watermelon in the Greek-Cypriot dialect. The far from flattering moniker would Read More >
17th July 2023
The following piece was created by the AI model “BabbleCPD,” prompted to create an article written by a grumpy old professor, out-of-touch with technology and society. Its chosen subject: “What impact is AI/ChatGPT having on academic Read More >
7th July 2023
On June 22, 2023, Nobel Prize winner Harry Markowitz, PhD father of modern portfolio theory died at age 95. In 1952, Markowitz published a paper titled "Portfolio Selection" in the Journal of Finance, which laid the foundation for what is still Read More >
19th June 2023
How we think about the past influences how we think about the future, including what lies ahead for real estate. With many medium and long-term trends at play, not the least the curveballs thrown by the last pandemic, investors must be agile and Read More >
9th June 2023
US office capital value will be 17% below 2021 values by 2030.
Source: Oxford Economics/MSCI
Having just passed the three-year anniversary of the Covid lockdowns, it is a good moment to take stock of the impact of the pandemic on US office Read More >
5th June 2023
This discussion could be called “Real Estate Tokenization 2.0 or 3.0” parallel to the evolution we witnessed in the CMBS market some years ago. We remain in the PropTech era of numerous startups, some offering real estate tokens or platforms Read More >
30th May 2023
Another instalment in a series of articles detailing how to design a secure, income-producing portfolio.
There are around 72 million baby boomers in the U.S. and they’re an affluent group. They account for less than a quarter of the U.S. Read More >
10th May 2023
I was asked to take part in a judging panel recently: one of the categories was for deal of the year and one contender was a large modern logistic enabling facility (or shed as we used to call them) which sold at an eye-wateringly low yield. Read More >
3rd May 2023
A New Year and just maybe a brighter dawn for the quoted REITs? As I type we’re about to finish the results season for the December year end companies. Results have varied between slightly worse than expected to reasonably satisfactory which Read More >
26th April 2023
Geoff Colvin wrote “The Upside of the Downturn” in the depths of the Global Financial Crisis. Few people were writing optimistic business books in 2009, so this one stands out.
Colvin presents that downturn as “The Greatest Read More >
17th April 2023
Chaotic systems can be described in many ways but the one I remember from my youth was dubbed ‘the butterfly effect,’ Loosely put, it describes the phenomenon that the flapping of a butterfly’s wings on one side of the world can Read More >
6th April 2023
I’ve yet to come across anyone who has a better way of describing current monetary policy than Louis Gave from Gavekal. Paraphrasing Louis, ‘the Fed is dynamite fishing, they’ve lit the fuse, thrown the stick of TNT in the water, Read More >
27th March 2023
Global credit standards are set to tighten further in response to the recent bank funding turmoil, as suggested by movements in bank share prices and financial conditions during the aftermath of the Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) collapse and Credit Read More >
21st March 2023
The big chill of recession and a banking panic now haunts black gold, exactly as it did in the last six months of 2008 when Brent crude plunged from $148 a barrel in July to barely $40 in December. Brent crude was $85 two weeks ago and plunged Read More >
14th March 2023
How do you know when you’ve gone far enough? That must be the question starting to dawn on the minds of central bankers in their current rate hike cycle. But having drifted so far from the normal rules based policy of monetary loosening during Read More >
14th February 2023
The UK did NOT enter recession in 2022
Last week’s news will come as a surprise to many (and a great disappointment to some) as the Bank of England’s forecasts from as recently as November suggested we should now be seven months Read More >
8th February 2023
Below is a graph showing the total number of residential units by estimated completion date and stage of development across London. It is, of course, a ‘best guess’, particularly when you consider that some developments are still planning Read More >
31st January 2023
On our journey looking at world economic developments, crises are sadly rarely far away. Indeed, our subject of today has in many ways been one long-running crisis. But the 2022 energy crisis and its consequences has given another shove to the Read More >
24th January 2023
With apologies for stating the bleedin‘ obvious, but most of us work to pay bills and no small part of these are accounted for by our mortgage. Consequently, for those who, on having thankfully made their last payment and received the Read More >
16th January 2023
In what follows I will call upon youthful memories of when we used a mixture of washing-up liquid, water, and a plastic circle to aimlessly and harmlessly blow bubbles into the air. I raise this childish image because a series of bubbles is Read More >
10th January 2023
Whether we consider the dollar’s level against a trade-weighted basket of other currencies or against a basket of commodities, its strength is arguably 'the market story' of 2022. As to why we have seen it move upwards in practically all Read More >
13th December 2022
Two once-in-a-generation disruptors joined forces this year. Black swan events are defined as ‘random, unexpected, but high-impact events’. Over the past 12 months, the property sector salons in Cannes, two winter MAPICs and the springtime Read More >
5th December 2022
Today’s title is a little tongue in cheek, but there is also quite a lot of truth in it. The chair of the US Federal Reserve has had particular influence over foreign interest rates this year via the 'King Dollar' period that exacerbated Read More >
29th November 2022
Mainstream scientists, doctors, parents speak out about harms of Covid-19 vaccines.
Just one day after she got a Covid-19 booster shot, Regan Lewis, a 20-year-old nursing student at Colby Community College in Colby, Kansas, had a heart Read More >
22nd November 2022
So…It has finally happened. A mere decade later than initially expected, the real estate industry is coming to terms with the inevitable end of quantitative easing, ie, 'normal' rather than artificially suppressed interest rates. While we all Read More >
7th November 2022
And it's not the greener firms that will save us.
To be an economist one cannot also be a diplomat, in as much as to be truly economically objective, one risks making statements which will very often prove objectionable and open oneself up to Read More >
31st October 2022
On 30 June 2022, purchasers of Hengda Longting apartments in Jingdezhen City, Jiangxi Province, issued a public notification of intending to stop paying home loans (qiangzhi tingdai gaozhi shu). The notification represented over 900 Read More >
26th September 2022
Battle lines redrawn for our consumer good.
By the time coronavirus so abruptly and harmfully struck, those businesses plying their consumer goods trade from premises on high streets, shopping centres and retail parks, had already lost Read More >
20th September 2022
Our writer reports from court side.
Like many in Paris, I relished last week’s return of two of the most anticipated shows on earth: Top Gun: Maverick and Roland-Garros. Both events had waited a long time to properly open their doors to an Read More >
5th September 2022
Seldom does another topic supplant the weather as the most common conversation topic amongst Brits. And yet, for six months now, temperature has been eclipsed by heated talk of sharply accelerating consumer price inflation. Now, when discussing Read More >
1st September 2022
Metamorphosis
In this very special series of exclusive articles for The Property Chronicle, Australian property legend Norman Harker reflects on his extraordinary 50-year life in real estate. He will pull no punches partly because, as he Read More >
18th August 2022
Real assets are not what they were.
Just as those of us in the West were starting to get our lives back after the pandemic, Russia invaded Ukraine, provoking a dramatic and unified response from much of Europe and the USA. At the same time, Read More >
11th August 2022
In his 2005 book, Everything was Forever, Until It Was No More: The Last Soviet Generation, Alexei Yurchak introduced the term ‘hypernormalisation’.
The book concentrated on the circumstances that existed in the Soviet Union Read More >
1st August 2022
Another instalment in a series of articles detailing how to design a secure, income-producing portfolio.
Several years ago, a small experiment led to a terrifying discovery. I was helping a family investment office do some long-range Read More >
28th July 2022
Investors as a group are as pessimistic and afraid as they've been for a long time.
Many investors are willing to sell at almost any price to escape these negative feelings, and that has pushed the FTSE 250 down more than 20% (the Read More >
18th July 2022
They’re all under one roof.
Who sets the price?
Historically, the real estate sector, and in particular the listed real estate, was regarded as a single asset class and generalist investors (ie, not real estate specialists) Read More >
12th July 2022
The failure of generations to capture the skills and knowledge of our elders.
In a couple of previous articles, I have developed a theme of getting old and how, in business (and probably in life in general), we are awful at talking with our Read More >
6th July 2022
The ‘potato cycle’ is a staple (sic) of the economics menu. The first thing, in fact, I was taught on the first day I began as an undergraduate, so, so many years ago. This simple rule uses the demand and supply curves for potatoes to Read More >
20th June 2022
Fund structures being used by REITS.
Most readers are, I’m sure, aware of the convergence between funds and REITs. Increasingly, listed REITs are adopting the style and structure of unlisted funds, but with the added provision of liquidity, Read More >
18th May 2022
Last year’s mantra was something for everyone, from duration income streams with inflation-linked dividend growth all the way down to deep recovery hopes in retail. The sector had a very good year, rising by a tad under 30% against the FTSE Read More >
12th May 2022
...and from place to place
Our forecasts offer an economic outlook for the UK in terms of both time, out to 2030, and space, across its 12 regions. Among factors we consider are spatial differences in employment shares by sector, Read More >
5th May 2022
...and from place to place.
The third of a four-part mini-series written by economist Savvas Savouri.
Housing matters are a crucial component in the composition of our regional outlook for the UK. One aspect is affordability and with this Read More >
21st April 2022
Bust or buying opportunity?
In the new territories north of Hong Kong, a vast and lavish property development was planned: a wetlands restoration, hundreds of luxury townhouses, all surrounding the jewel in this property crown – a Palace of Read More >
11th April 2022
Do conventional bonds still deserve a place in portfolios?
Total return on 10-year US Treasuries, adjusted for US CPI inflation %
Global Financial Data, Refinitiv, US Bureau of Labor Statistics, Ruffer calculations, 24 month rolling total Read More >
7th April 2022
Promoters claim that bitcoin is a new type of money, reduces transaction costs by abandoning intermediaries and will become a safe asset that they call 'digital gold'. The bitcoin network, in fact, is a game of chance subject to existing Read More >
28th March 2022
Those gazing into the future should be wary of inflationary storm clouds.
There is cash in the bank, cash flows that are almost within touching distance and there are cash flows that are barely visible to the naked eye. Then there are Read More >
21st March 2022
An exercise in drawing parallels.
The first cryptocurrency ETFs have recently been launched. This article briefly examines the concept of parallel markets (in particular that of a liquid proxy for an illiquid asset) and asks whether there are Read More >
16th March 2022
Inflation is running hot, even before wage-price pressures have begun.
Central bankers tell us the current burst of inflation will be transitory and workers will not mind the temporary squeeze on their living standards.
In today’s Read More >
17th February 2022
Kicking good sense out of touch.
For most of us, the pursuit of profit has been the primary driver of our businesses. Recently, a new constituent has emerged in the form of environmental, social and governance considerations, Read More >
10th February 2022
New tech can speed up Europe’s single-family rental sector.
As we end the last quarter of 2021, a second volatile year due to the pandemic, institutional investment in Europe’s residential sector is on the rise as landlords look Read More >
31st January 2022
A story of supply and demand?
In a previous article (The Property Chronicle, Autumn 2021, ‘Property Investment: Is it still worth it?’), it was argued that rents are an interaction between what an occupier thinks the space is Read More >
14th December 2021
The Midwest region is a broad geography encompassing the Great Lakes and upper Mississippi and Ohio River watersheds. Major cities in the area include well-known names like Chicago and Detroit, and fast-growing smaller cities like Minneapolis Read More >
7th December 2021
It always comes back to supply and demand.
Inflation in small doses can stimulate property markets, diverting investor demand out of fixed income, but harmful should it lead to rate hikes.
Property offers long-term core investors Read More >
1st December 2021
US dollar food commodity prices have risen 40% since the onset of Covid-19 in March 2020. This sharp price jump, shown in the graph below, has reversed a painful period of farm produce deflation during the previous seven years. In fact, farm Read More >
22nd November 2021
Achieving net zero emissions has a long way to go.
Some of the historical events accentuating the recent decade is the threat of pandemics and the urgency towards embracing common environment policies. Both points have either shaped or Read More >
8th November 2021
Seldom since its civil war and prior to that its battle for independence, has America’s internal future/fortunes been so vulnerable to the actions of outsiders serving their own ambitions. This time, however, it isn’t dealing with the Read More >
18th October 2021
Destination shopping will return, says this writer.
Having had so much change forced upon us by this cursed viral crisis, we can all be forgiven for despairing that things will never again ‘settle down’. And yet they will, Read More >
14th October 2021
Industrial/residential is the new office/retail.
In 1991, 37% of the UK institutional property market measured by IPD was retail; by 2001 this had risen to over 45%. In 1991, over 47% of that universe was offices; by 2001 this had Read More >
7th October 2021
…and we simply don’t care enough.
The publication of the 3,949 page Climate Change 2021: The Physical Science Basis Report in early August elicited many different comments from governments, the media and individuals around the world. This Read More >
30th September 2021
We take it for granted that we can go to a supermarket and buy all the food we need or get it delivered. However, as we look forward, that may not always be the case.
The UK currently imports 40% of all food needs. This is likely to soon Read More >
20th September 2021
Overconfidence can be ruinous in real estate and elsewhere.
Overconfidence is a cognitive error that we make routinely. It’s the tendency to hold a false assessment of our skills, intellect or talent. Take this article, for example: I Read More >
13th September 2021
How to avoid the pitfalls of building down.
In early November last year, the residents of Durham Place, London, which looks over Burton Court and the Royal Hospital in Chelsea, had a rude awakening when a house there collapsed, luckily Read More >
8th September 2021
“Rain does not fall on one roof alone.” (African proverb)
Albeit debating the reasons along ideological lines, the world is getting to grips that climate change is an undeniable fact. Apart from pandemics, the subject is likely to Read More >
23rd August 2021
How technology is opening up single-family rentals as an emerging asset class for investors.
Today, technology plays an integral role in society, heightened ever more by the global pandemic. Traditionally rooted, the real estate sector is one Read More >
16th August 2021
What Blackstone's recent US housing deals tell us.
In late June 2021, Blackstone acquired Home Partners of America Inc (HPA), a company owning roughly 17,000 single-family homes across the US, which is as much of a rent escalation play as it Read More >
11th August 2021
Is this the digital worlds last frontier?
"We are all now connected by the internet, like neurons in a giant brain" –Stephen Hawking
Looking at a map depicting global internet user penetration verifies this thought, but also leaves an Read More >
2nd August 2021
Covid 19’s impact on the Asia Pacific office market has been that buoyant demand leading into the pandemic was quickly stymied as corporate occupiers sought to limit cost exposures and assess their real estate needs. In line with this, vacancy Read More >
29th July 2021
Business and art go together like... Well, these days, the proverbial horse and carriage
ndy Warhol, a man who knew whereof he spoke, once observed, “Making money is art and working is art and good business is the best Read More >
19th July 2021
Shopping centres and offices are the surprise front-runners in the REIT scene.
In the spring edition of The Property Chronicle, I ventured to suggest that, while there is something for everyone in the REIT sector this year, retail property Read More >
13th July 2021
It was a surprise to see an ex-pupil on Interpol’s Most Wanted list. I suppose I had assumed that life at a fairly decent sort of school in a fairly decent sort of place would cocoon me from the worst of the criminal element, but here he was, Read More >
5th July 2021
When you don’t want to pay top dollar, consider sipping the fruit of your favoured vineyards’ less established plants.
We’re back on vaguely familiar territory, I’m afraid (I promise to try and change the record soon). Yet I am, as Read More >
28th June 2021
The colonists were at first demanding only equal rights with British citizens, until the events of April 1775.
In 1837, the American poet and philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson published a poem called Concord Hymn, to mark the dedication of an Read More >
21st June 2021
Cryptocurrency is something of a fairy tale, but the real story is one of central banks seeking financial repression by any means possible.
Arguably, the best background reading for global finance over the past 30 years was written by the Read More >
8th June 2021
By ignoring the wisdom of those with more experience, we end up repeatedly revisiting the same issues.
“History repeats itself over and over again, but most of us have short memories.” – Mike Colter, writing in Origin magazine, Read More >
26th May 2021
The UK’s sailed through many a rough patch and come out all the better – so Brexit’s not a worry! But why the hell can’t we win the America’s Cup?
After too many years in the City, experience has taught me that stuff happens if Read More >
11th May 2021
Many parts of the economy have suffered no ill effects from Covid – the US government should restrain its largesses
One year after the emergence of covid as a threat to our daily existence, a peculiar narrative has taken hold whereby the Read More >
6th May 2021
Master poker player Achilleas Kallakis used his skills to build a property empire based on fraud and forgery
Achilleas Kallakis was still in prison in the summer of 2014, when I wrote to ask if he fancied telling his astonishing tale. The man Read More >
6th May 2021
Policy change is creating opportunities and challenges for farmers across the UK
As if the challenges created by our exit from the EU and the pandemic were not enough, the UK farming industry must also come to terms with the Read More >
28th April 2021
Offices are starting to strengthen, and reduced supply is making even retail more attractive – as value emerges, it’s time to get back in the game.
The UK quoted property sector and indeed much of the direct property market has not had Read More >
20th April 2021
On 16 December 2020 the following joint statement was issued by the FBI, the Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence: “Over the course of the past several days, the FBI, CISA, Read More >
15th April 2021
FTSE ST Real Estate Investment Trusts (FTSE ST REIT Index) increased from 826.65 to 859.68 (+3.99%) compared with last month’s update. Currently the Singapore REIT index is still trading with a range between 816 and 874.
Yield spread Read More >
30th March 2021
Abandoned golf courses are ripe for redevelopment and offer ideal locations for distribution.
E-commerce fulfilment does not usually trigger an image of grassy meadows and gently rolling landscapes, but there’s a growing convergence as Read More >
24th March 2021
In this very special series of exclusive articles for the Property Chronicle, Australian property legend Norman Harker reflects on his extraordinary 50-year life in real estate. He will pull no punches partly because, as he freely admits, Norman Read More >
18th March 2021
The best can come out of the worst – if we work (in our office) at it!
As an architect I need to be an optimist – it is part of my survival kit. That does not make me unaware of the bad – but it does make me look for the good (I am ever Read More >
9th March 2021
In this very special series of exclusive articles for the Property Chronicle, Australian property legend Norman Harker reflects on his extraordinary 50-year life in real estate. He will pull no punches partly because, as he freely admits, Norman Read More >
4th March 2021
John Fowles was a conflicted novelist whose desire to change the world was at odds with his chosen genre of experimentalism, and whose literary ideals were quashed by his hefty sales figures.
Every writer is compelled to write. They must be, Read More >
22nd February 2021
New retail leasing models and platforms capture the uplift a physical store can bring to online sales.
It is no secret that the retail sector has been in decline for some years, largely because the economics of online retailers and their Read More >
15th February 2021
CAP subsidies aren’t why farmland prices rose, so removing them won’t reverse that.
My favourite Savills Rural Research graph is the one that has tracked land values in the UK since the 1970s. We have data going way back before that too, Read More >
9th February 2021
What do investors want right now? Which are their preferred opportunities, and what do you need to know about them? This series sums up what one European investment adviser has gathered from his online meetings, conferences and other Read More >
3rd February 2021
Consumers won’t turn back from e-commerce now – so what do institutional investors need to know about the logistics property market?
The influence of e-commerce on the daily life of many Americans became clear to me when my 92-year-old Read More >
19th January 2021
Only in the make-believe world of analytical models can negative nominal interest rates be argued to do any real good.
Last October, Andrew Bailey, governor of the Bank of England, ordered UK commercial banks to demonstrate their preparedness Read More >
5th January 2021
The pandemic has created as many opportunities as it has removed, and there will be no lasting damage – not even for the young.
At the outset of this crisis, there were widespread concerns that the UK residential market would suffer Read More >
16th December 2020
Continuing our three-part series on proptech, a look at the innovation gap in real estate.
Following our walk down proptech’s memory lane last week, today we will look at the real estate industry’s innovation gap. This in turn will set Read More >
3rd December 2020
What can real estate expect in 2021?
After rain there is sunshine, as a Dutch saying goes. And if you have as much rain as we do, you know what you are talking about. So, can we expect sunshine to return in 2021, after this very ‘rainy’ Read More >
26th November 2020
Each one of these trends is underpinned by a higher weighting afforded to individual needs, preferences and experiences – meaning that real estate developers and landlords can no longer take a cookie-cutter Read More >
18th November 2020
Who can resist being provided with a soapbox? The Property Chronicle asked whether, as a partner in a reasonably sized London law firm, I would reveal some of the black arts of solicitors, the most famously egregious being hourly billing and my Read More >
11th November 2020
“I’d rather be dumb and antifragile than extremely smart and fragile” – Nassim Taleb, in Antifragile: Things That Gain from Disorder (2012), p4
Looking beyond covid-19 (see our previous article), the future performance of real estate Read More >
3rd November 2020
The broad-based REIT indexes were relatively flat last week, which was in tandem with the broader based indices.But the biggest talking point has been the two recent activist campaigns launched on Ashford Hospitality Trust (AHT) by Cygnus Read More >
28th October 2020
Housing activity – starts and permits – posted strong results in September as the single-family segment made gains across most of the country while multifamily housing appears to be trending flat. Total housing starts rose to a 1.415 million Read More >
19th October 2020
US home sales are soaring, and even renters now favour suburban units with ample space for home-working. Should urban landlords be worried?
A growing trend in the US housing market is the search for more space, light and air. It is evidenced Read More >
12th October 2020
Ordinary valuation methods prove inaccurate when the measures they’re based on are in such a state of flux – it’s time to turn to a different methodology.
In ordinary circumstances (anyone remember those halcyon days of steady state Read More >
7th October 2020
Industrial and logistics (I&L) REITs in the Pacific Rim played an added-value and strategic role in multi-asset portfolios, according to our new analysis published in the Journal of Property Investment & Finance.
E-commerce is Read More >
1st October 2020
Real estate probably isn’t one of the first industries that comes to mind when thinking about climate change – but it should be. Globally, the built environment is responsible for around 40% of energy-related carbon emissions, so getting to Read More >
22nd September 2020
Housing is needed. Green space is precious. And, after the coronavirus, some offices could be left empty. Anyone currently campaigning against the obvious solution of converting disused office space into housing would surely be Read More >
16th September 2020
Summary
Xaar is a relatively young and small leading-edge technology business which I bought in mid-2018It’s a good example of how excessive R&D in highly cyclical businesses can produce bad resultsI sold because a 90% increase in Read More >
31st August 2020
https://www.ukpublicspending.co.uk/uk_national_deficit_analysis
He may be one of only a handful of senior-ranking Ministers in Downing Street to have avoided catching Covid-19 but the pandemic has left the Chancellor of the Exchequer with a Read More >
27th August 2020
German financial analysts are forecasting an increase in property foreclosures of at least 20%, and loan defaults of up to €100bn as a consequence of the coronavirus pandemic, once the laws introduced on 23rd March to protect borrowers lose Read More >
11th August 2020
This morning there will have been scenes at the Bank of England. Indeed there will have been jostling amongst the staff as they rush to be the one who presents the morning meeting. Whoever grabbed the gig will be facing a Governor who has a wide Read More >
4th August 2020
THE CORRELATION between being overweight and being in ICU with Covid-19 is so well known outside of Downing Street, that there is already at least one published Covid Diet. Like all diets it suggests that you eat plenty of protein, Read More >
30th July 2020
In the past 18 years, after a series of spectacular and occasionally failed rocket launches, Elon Musk’s SpaceX has emerged as Silicon Valley’s next colossus, a once in a generation business in the same league as an Amazon, a Google or a Read More >
22nd July 2020
The coronavirus economic shock has already caused UK house prices to wobble – and they may yet tumble if the narrative worsens. As the virus changes society and the way we live, it will inevitably change the factors that drive the demand and Read More >
14th July 2020
If you think about German banking, your first thoughts are likely Deutsche Bank’s history of negative headlines and crashing stock price over the last many years. There is a widely held perception across the financial markets that Germans are Read More >
7th July 2020
Last month WeWork surveyed the heads of real estate from 69 global corporations asking how they envisioned the world of work in this new COVID-19 age. Three themes emerged:
+ Acceleration of how flex space might be Read More >
23rd June 2020
NOW GDP is the cumulative amount we all earn through the course of 12 months, it is a flow, and must not be confused with the total value of assets across the UK, or our stock of wealth. With these differences in mind let us compare and contrast Read More >
27th May 2020
My World: June 2021...
This is part of a series of articles where our contributors describe how they think things will look a year from now.
Office demand stays level, as flexible working and a move to lower density cancel each other out Read More >
25th May 2020
My world: June 2021...
This is part of a series of articles where our contributors describe how they think things will look a year from now.
Both the offices and residential markets will migrate to the regions, and algorithms will rule our Read More >
18th May 2020
My world: June 2021...
This is part of a series of articles where our contributors describe how they think things will look a year from now.
I see a friend on the way into the New York office building where I have a presentation to an Read More >
14th May 2020
There may not be many reasons for optimism about the economic outlook, but one is the relative flexibility of the UK labour market. This should help unemployment to fall back and activity to recover more quickly – provided government gets out Read More >
7th May 2020
Proptech evangelists would have you believe that emerging digital technologies can and will be applied imminently to any real estate use, in the process resolving all of the industry’s current inefficiencies overnight. However, as the saying Read More >
1st May 2020
Long term interest rates, in real and nominal terms, have fallen continuously since the early 1980s, and yields on commercial real estate have come down with them. Most recent analysis, suggests that it is real rather than nominal interest Read More >
23rd April 2020
veryone agrees that people’s life and wellness are more important than GDP figures. But GDP figures are not only the invention of cold-hearted economists with nothing but monetary transactions on their mind. They capture something in the real Read More >
17th April 2020
The era of monetary dominance is over. Helicopter money signals investment regime changes ahead.
S&P performance until surpassing -20% threshold, number of trading days
It was the avalanche we have long feared. From record Read More >
16th April 2020
Cycling to Success
As I was growing up, one of the quirky delights of the weekend was listening to Alistair Cooke’s ‘Letter from America.’ I’m sure at the time I barely understood what he was opining on but somehow the combination of Read More >
25th March 2020
On November 1, 2005, President George W. Bush held a press conference in which he called for draconian measures and $7.1 billion in spending to stop the spread of H5N1 Avian flu, which was then starting to cause some panic.
“The Read More >
Featuring
Face to Face
In-depth interviews with leading figures in the real estate/investment world.
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