Christmas sales aren’t looking rosy, what with the pandemic – and then we have to deal with Brexit. I will try not to dwell too much on you-know-what – we all know the effects of the coronavirus, ad infinitum, and glasses are, alas, overflowing. However, fortified by some warming Chianti Classico, forgive me if I […]
Plus, reassessing the relationship between UK interest rates and REITs. This article was originally published in June 2019. The perceived wisdom has always been that reducing, and indeed low, UK interest rates are good for real estate in general. Equally, UK real estate investment trusts (REITs) (with their high dividend pay-out ratio compared to PropCos, […]
This article was originally published in September 2020. Around 15 million people work in around 410 million m² of office space in Germany. Although many people used to work occasionally from home prior to 2020, the home office only became the available option for many workers in the course of the coronavirus pandemic. People’s experience […]
THE word of this extraordinary winter in Paris has been couvre-feu. The very expression is still heavy with associations from the 1940s occupation, even if the order to “cover your fires!” was originally intended to protect medieval wooden cities from burning down. The mid-January tightening of France’s latest couvre-feu – to start at 6pm instead […]
Öslem Tureci and Uğur Şahin – the founders of BionTech, which, together with Pfizer, pioneered one of the first covid-19 vaccines – are remarkable individuals in a wider sense. While their scientific research and business success, leading to a US$3.6bn net worth, are impressive, their most significant impact will likely be on how immigrants are […]
The context for the recent government housebuilding announcement. […]
“The whole is greater than the sum of its parts.”For a nation battling with working-from-home fatigue, this statement from Aristotle takes on a new meaning. As we edge closer to the anniversary of the UK’s first lockdown, office-based professionals are desperate to regroup with colleagues. Despite chatter about ‘the death of the office’, working from […]
Standing at close to £759bn, the ‘stock’ of UK state debt acquired by the Bank of England on behalf of the state is not merely a considerable number but, to many, a monetary time-bomb. Indeed, I am often challenged with the question: when the Bank of England ‘deals’ with the debt it has landed itself […]
Don’t fall into the trap of designing a building people like – design one they’ll either love or hate and you will reap the rewards. As a brand, it’s not good to be vanilla. Like marmite, you want people to either love you or hate you. And when it comes to rental apartments, why would […]
This article was originally published in October 2020. Artificial pitches help small clubs bring in revenue and foster community football. Why must they tear them up to get promoted? After the recent National League play-offs, Harrogate Town FC have just become the first English club playing on a 3G artificial pitch to be promoted to […]
