With almost 40 years’ experience in the industry, Ed Mead looks at what estate agents were like ‘back in the day’. […]
How it was With almost 40 years' experience in the industry, Ed Mead looks back at what estate agents used to be like
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The cuts to housing benefits
They led to over 75,000 more overcrowded households during the pandemic. Covid-19 has been described as a ‘housing disease‘. Overcrowded living conditions make it easier for the virus to spread, and statistics show a link between overcrowding and mortality from Covid. In my new research published in the International Journal of Housing Policy, I found that […]
The outlook for CEE commercial property
Poland offers attractive investment possibilities post-Covid. We have now undergone a year and half of unprecedented interference in all aspects of our lives including, of course, in business. In an attempt to combat the serious consequences of such mammoth disruption, governments have engaged in the largest spending spree in history. The results of such a […]
There is nothing going on but the rent
That quote from a hit by Gwen Guthrie is rather echoing this morning as we look at another aspect of the housing crisis. I point out the song link partly because there was quite a miss last night on a reference to the film Escape from New York on Twitter. That was a theme of […]
Confessions of a valuer – chapter 16: Nigella, Thatcher’s downfall & madness
Originally published June 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 has a limited life expectancy of five years from December 2018 due to […]
Record numbers of UK firms are being swallowed by private equity
Should we be worried? Two big takeover battles in the UK are a sign of the times: supermarket chain Wm Morrisons and respiratory medicines group Vectura are both the subject of bids in the billions of pounds by private equity firms. In the case of Vectura, Carlyle Group is battling it out with Marlboro cigarette giant Altria, while different […]
FDP liberals target pivotal role in coalition government
It’s all still to play for in the upcoming German elections, which will see Angela Merkel bow out after 16 years at the top. Now that the competing political parties are allowed to put their election posters up on the lampposts, the gloves are off in earnest and the real battle commences. Here, we highlight […]
The golden anniversary of a Paris property pioneer
Originally published April 2021. This year, a Paris property pioneer celebrates 50 years living and working in France. In half a century of developing office properties, the resilient Paul Raingold has navigated many cycles of boom, bust and recovery. In late 2020 he recovered from coronavirus. Happily, the rejuvenated Paul is now back in the […]
Sub-Saharan housing markets
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 is underwriting capital value appreciations. This week, Blackstone expanded its US housing footprint by […]
Click bait in sub-Saharan Africa
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 important and impactful fact unmentioned: the significant gap between African countries, in particular sub-Saharan Africa, and […]
