“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 legislation on environmental standards, we are experiencing a robust occupier market and a falling investment […]
The Russia-Ukraine grain deal that has been critical to keeping global food prices stable and preventing famine is currently in tatters. On July 17, 2023, Russia said it was pulling out of the year-old deal, which allowed shipments of grains and other foodstuffs to travel past the Russian naval blockade in the Black Sea. And to make matters worse, […]
When Liz Truss and Kwasi Kwarteng’s tax-cutting mini-budget triggered a UK debt crisis in autumn 2022, the pound plummeted to almost parity with the US dollar. In 2023 the UK has endured weak growth, falling productivity and high inflation, yet the pound has been the strongest performing currency among the G10 leading economies. It is currently trading at almost US$1.31, its highest level […]
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 invariably be accompanied by a gesture where my father would hold out his hands, all the […]
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 deal of respect for the quality of its journalism. I was therefore flattered to […]
A friend of mine was bemoaning his recent travel experience in Berlin, apparently one of his favourite European Cities. He had not been for several years and was drawn to a conference in the City. He knew the old Teigel Airport well, and assumed, unwittingly it now transpires, that the “new” Brandenburg airport would be […]
Originally published February 2021. Messing about in boats, you come across all kinds of creatures – but it’s not the wild ones that chew your ear off. Beavers do extraordinary things. While paddling canoes down the River Tay this summer, a local naturalist in our small team picked up a ‘beaver stick’. There are now […]
Originally published June 2021. Our farms can be both wildlife-friendly and efficiently productive. Nirmal Purja, on completing his unique winter climb to the summit of K2, reflected that “Mother Nature always has bigger things to say”. The roar of the wind on that savage mountain would have filled his ears, but we can listen to […]
The President of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors has written to Dame Janet Pareskeva, OBE, the Head of the Institution’s Standards and Regulation Board and in effect required her resignation. This creates a new situation in the regulation of professions in Britain. As the Editor has kindly invited me to comment from outside the […]
HSBC is moving its UK headquarters from Canary Wharf back into the City of London as it adjusts to the impact of hybrid work on its office space needs. This could signal the reverse of the 1990s trend of banks moving out of the City in search of buildings more suited to modern banking. The City’s “Square […]
