Investing lessons from Nick Sleep by The Undercover Fund Manager Nick Sleep is one of the greatest investors I’ve ever come across. Sleep managed the Nomad Investment Partnership for over a decade, along with his partner Qais Zakaria, delivering returns of 921% versus 117% for the MSCI World Index (September 2001 to December 2013). He has tended to keep a low profile so isn’t as
Proptech: buzzword or innovation? by Martin Schwarzburg Following a look at historical proptech impacts and then the current innovation and productivity challenges faced by the wider real estate industry, this final piece in our three-part mini-series will conclude by mapping the current proptech landscape and its likely impact. With digitalisation at its core, the current proptech wave is observable along the entire
Confessions of a valuer, chapter 10: a biblical approach to promotion by Norman Harker 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 a diagnosed terminal blood
The rise and rise of the intelligent shopper by Jeffrey Bonas This article was originally published in Spring 2019. An unforeseen revolution has made us all into super shoppers – and shops into receiverships. The retail industry is in distress across the world. The culprit? Lack of profitability. Walmart, the world’s largest retailer, has seen its net profits fall from 3.5% to 1% between 2006 and
A king among cloud busters by Simon Silver This article was originally published in March 2019. How a whisky magnate’s daughter fought to build a skyscraper that still takes the breath away. I must confess that I am not a huge fan of skyscrapers – or ‘cloud busters’ as they were first described in Chicago in the 1920s. However, on my first visit
Hollywood’s love affair with the architect by David Shiers … and why other property professionals get lumped with the bad guy roles. This article was originally published in April 2019. “I don’t build in order to have clients, I have clients in order to build!” raves Howard Roark, the architect hero of the 1949 film, The Fountainhead, based on the Ayn Rand novel of the
