Originally published September 2021. Why preserving the irreplaceable benefits everyone and especially moths. The names of moths are a delicious smorgasbord of rich imagery. Our evenings are festooned by Dusky Footmen and Ruby Tigers, Death’s Head hawkmoths and even the Scarce Merveille du Jour. They bring the pipistrelles and barbastelle who, through echo location, find […]
Originally published November 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 Pidgley’s 2017 fiscal pay packet was £26.9 million and in recent weeks he has sold two tranches of […]
Originally published April 2021. Proptech is not new: a conversation with (above, from left to right) Jim Young, founder and CEO of Realcomm, Michael Beckerman, CEO of CREtech, and Matt Ellis, CEO of Measurabl. Biographies Jim Young is the founder of Realcomm Conference Group, an educational organisation that produces Realcomm, IBcon and CoRE Tech, with […]
Originally published March 2023 Federal budget hawks are in a pickle. Having predicted nine out of the last zero debt crises, those of us worried about the trajectory of US government spending have the inevitable task of convincing the public that this time is different. It’s going to be a tough sell, but we have to […]
Challenging the opinion that only the wealthiest can buy Banksy art This article was originally published in August 2019. Banksy’s art hit the headlines in October 2018 when a piece of artwork self-destructed in the midst of an auction. Since then, demand for the anonymous artist’s work has shot up. Luckily for collectors, it’s possible […]
Pricing vintage comics isn’t just about scarcity and quality – the characters are the key to value. This article was originally published in November 2019. “Comic books to me are fairy tales for grown-ups.” So said renowned comic publisher Stan Lee in a 2014 interview. And while there is definite investment potential in comics, for many […]
Originally published in September 2020. The answer is clearly no. I asked the question to get your attention and, perhaps, surface prejudice. It irritates me that property management or PM comes such a distant second to letting in the industry, as measured in glory, status, money and time spent by directors on their business. This […]
Originally published August 2017. About 30 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 the next generation up from me, i.e. the majority of the property transacting public, there was still a whiff […]
Originally published October 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’. Its central theme, set against a background of science fiction and interstellar space travel, is the perennial one […]
Tasting notes on the harvest. I scrawl the following words towards the end of May, having recently returned from a week in Bordeaux… Now, there’s a phrase that hasn’t appeared in print for a while – over three years, to be exact. And after all that has happened since March 2020, it really was good […]
