The Property Chronicle Weekly

The Property Chronicle | The Weekly

Escape hatches: migration, bitcoin and the ability to get out

by Joakim Book

For decades, those of us sceptical of our central banks’ monetary experiments have tried to punish them for their excesses – rein them in, have them follow a stated rule, or at least provide a way for us critics to opt out of their system. Immunize ourselves from whatever havoc they’re wreaking. Projects have come

WHAT EVERYONE IS TALKING ABOUT

Twenty questions with Mike Slade
by The Editor
The Property Chronicle is delighted to be a supporter of the Royal Marsden Cancer Charity’s Oak Cancer Centre Appeal. To help them raise awareness and money we thought you would enjoy it if we asked Mike Slade, chairman of the appeal, a few personal questions …. Mike Slade OBE is one of the best-known figures

Riding the booms and avoiding the busts
by Brad Thomas
I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but the markets have been a little volatile in 2021. Or have they been volatile for the last 12 months? Maybe even longer than that? It’s getting difficult to say, when this seems to be the new norm. Take Tuesday 23 February. Here’s what Morningstar wrote about it at

Your real estate qualifications may just have become more valuable
by Norman Miller
Private real estate partnerships tend to outperform institutional real estate investments by a significant margin for several reasons. First, they include a greater proportion of higher risk investments and value-add opportunities while institutional investors mostly buy seasoned and highly occupied properties with less upside. Second, the private investors use more leverage while institutional investors often

THE LATEST FROM OUR WRITERS

Scylla and Charybdis: meditations on John Fowles’ The Magus

by T.A. Cotterell

John Fowles was a conflicted novelist whose desire to change the world was at odds with his chosen genre of experimentalism, and whose literary ideals were quashed by his hefty sales figures. Every writer is compelled to write. They must be, or they wouldn’t do it. The hours are long, the pay for all but

At least vintners can easily drown their sorrows

by Mark Roberts

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

LISTEN TO OR READ

Reflections on lockdown: LBJ, JFK, terrible TV ads and coffee bags

by Stephen Yorke

In our summer 2020 special I was bullish for June 2021, and I still think that by the time of our next quarterly, in spring 2021, we will be at the foothills of a two year mini-boom in property values driven by increased global allocations to real assets with half-decent, low-volatility income streams (resi, anyone?).

OTHER DIVERSIONS

David Baddiel is wrong – anyone should be able to play Jews

by Adam Solomons

David Baddiel’s polemic Jews Don’t Count has proved surprisingly controversial. He seems to have gone out of his way to rile political opponents – mostly antisemites, and their enablers and apologists. Rightly so. There will never be a surplus of books lambasting antisemitic hatred or hypocrisy among the darker corners of the political left, which –

GOLDEN OLDIES

Reflecting on communism after 103 years
by Ethan Yang
This article was originally published in November 2020. November 7th marked the 103rd anniversary of the Bolshevik Revolution, where communist revolutionaries overthrew the czarist government of Russia, eventually leading to the establishment of the Soviet Union. From there, communism would spread throughout the world with the promise of liberating the working class and establishing a

Interest rates and REITs – how do they relate?
by Alex Moss
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,

Working from home – the German experience
by Tobias Just
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