Edition 14

GLOBAL

PROPERTY SCENE ISSUE NO. 014

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This issue: Should I move to Manchester? | A guide to Bitcoin | World’s best value destinations How is the UK housing market performing against the rest of the world?

FOCUS ON : COLOMBIA

INVESTING IN CANADA

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INSIDE Features

18 The global housing market

34 The housing market crash

41 Humans on Mars by 2025

67 The best value destinations

London, England. The UK has seen a 7.7% rise in average house prices over the last year and investors across the country are quietly celebrating as the property market continues to outperform expectations amid sometimes uncertain economic environment following the Referendum on membership of the European Union.

Since it first came to the forefront of consumer awareness nearly a decade ago, much ink has been spilt discussing the global financial crisis that ravaged almost every economy in the world, leading to what the International Monetary Fund called “the largest financial crisis in the US since the Great Depression”.

The idea of landing people on the surface of Mars has existed as a fantasy in the minds of science fiction writers for many years. Actually making that a reality has proven to be far harder and, so far, beyond us both technologically and in terms of how much it will cost.

Show-stopping cities such as New York, Tokyo, London and Paris are all well and good – these are, after all, the places where the world turns.

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07 Market in Focus: Colombia

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But what if you are after a cheaper trip somewhere a bit further off the beaten track?

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A country of contrasts and contradictions, of history and diversity and, ultimately, a country looking towards a bright future.

86 Should I move to Manchester?

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Manchester is the UK’s second city and one of the best places in the country to live.

The home of the Industrial Revolution, the UK has long been established as a major commercial centre, benefiting from strong trade links with companies on every continent. With a long history in international cooperation, the country is an attractive place for investors both foreign and domestic.

Knight Knox has sold thousands of properties. We have experts on the ground that can help to find your perfect property. Why purchase with anybody else?

ISSUE 014 GLOBAL

PROPERTY SCENE ISSUE NO. 014

EDITOR’S NOTE

The Number One Buy-to-Let Magazine | www.globalpropertyscene.com

This issue: Should I move to Manchester? | A guide to Bitcoin | World’s best value destinations How is the UK housing market performing against the rest of the world?

FOCUS ON : COLOMBIA

INVESTING IN CANADA

It has certainly been a whirlwind year; with some results many would’ve bet against. The UK has started its surprising withdrawal from the EU, a process few in parliament seem able to tackle. In a modern day interpretation of David and Goliath, we watched the relegation dodging Leicester City win the English football league. And in the most surprising event of 2016 we watched the Republican outsider, Donald Trump, win the most powerful seat in the world.

To many, Donald Trump proved divisive, old fashioned and hard to understand. And yet somehow his campaign has tapped into the American majority. We have closely covered the American election in Global Property Scene, so it seemed a good point to start our new “off the site” section, which features our favourite news pieces from the last two months.

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Contact +44(0)161 772 1394 info@globalpropertyscene.com www.globalpropertyscene.com

Credits Individual Samantha Jones, Hannah Wilde, Alex Timperley, Will Leyland, Emma Martin, Richard Ellis, Alistair McGovern, Suzanne Todd, Callum Whiteley, John Power, Martin Copeland, Michael Vickers, Mark Williams Commercial Knight Knox, X1, Fortis Developments, Forshaw Land & Property Group, Buy Association, INTUS Lettings, Gold Key Media, Shutterstock, Property Investor, Crossbow Investments CODA Studios Ltd, Tatton Investment Management

Colombia, a country which had recently voted on ending over 50 years of insurgency looked set to make history. Yet in another shocking result, the electorate had other ideas bringing further clouds of doubt over the country’s future. With President Juan Manuel Santos promising a peaceful future regardless of the vote, we take a look at this fascinating country’s history and future aspirations.

Following the result of the presidential election, Canada has received a record number of residence applications from their American neighbours. With growing international interest in both financial and residential investments, it seemed the right time to make Canada our main focus.

And to finish things off we take an in-depth look at the global housing market crash. This is often a misunderstood subject, but we endeavour to explain the why, how and outcome to help you the investor make safe decisions.

All of which brings a close to 2016. I think the one positive we can all take from this turbulent year is that despite the many strange outcomes, the housing market continues to grow. It’s in this solace I look forward to a bright 2017.

Happy New Year

Editor-in-chief Michael Smith

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BUY-TO-LET IN THE NORTHERN POWERHOUSE APARTMENTS FROM

£128,000

MARKET IN FOCUS Colombia

Words : Will Leyland | View : Ilyshev Dmitry

A country of contrasts and contradictions, of history and diversity and, ultimately, a country looking towards a bright future.

The Republic of Colombia, a transcontinental country largely situated in the northwest of South America, shares a border to the northwest with Panama, to the east with Venezuela and Brazil, and to the south with Ecuador and Peru. The territory of what is now Colombia was originally inhabited by indigenous peoples including the Muisca, Quimbaya, and Tairona.

Like many of its geographical family in South and Central America, the Spanish arrived in the 15th century and initiated a period of conquest and colonisation. This created the Viceroyalty of New Granada, with its capital of Bogotá. Following centuries of Spanish rule the indigenous people were largely reduced and the national language became Spanish.

Independence from Spain was won in 1819, but by 1830 the “Gran Colombia” Federation was dissolved. What is now Colombia and Panama emerged as the Republic of New Granada. The new nation experimented with federalism as the Granadine Confederation in 1858, and then the United States of Colombia in 1863, before the Republic of Colombia was finally declared in 1886.

Following these unsuccessful periods Panama seceded in 1903 and, since the 1960s, the country has suffered from a low-intensity armed conflict, escalating in the 1990s but decreasing from 2005 onward.

Ethnically and linguistically Colombia is one of the most diverse countries in the world, giving rise to a rich cultural heritage. The culture of the country has been largely influenced by Colombia’s varied geography, and the imposing landscape has resulted in very strong regional identities. The urban centres are mostly located in the highlands of the Andes Mountains.

Colombian territory also encompasses Amazonian rainforest, tropical grassland and both Caribbean and Pacific coastlines. Ecologically, it is one of the world’s 17 megadiverse countries, and the most densely biodiverse in the world per square kilometre.

Colombia is a middle power and a regional actor with the fourth largest economy in Latin America and is part of the CIVETS (Colombia, Indonesia, Vietnam, Egypt, Turkey and South Africa) group of six leading emerging markets.

Colombia follows a tradition of struggle and civil war that has followed throughout much of Latin America and knows more than most the costs

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of lengthy and violent warfare. Having achieved independence from the Spanish in the early 19th century, what followed was over a century of political unrest and change. By 1903 the country felt the hand of influence from a U.S. government keen to influence the region and, in particular, the region involved in the building of the Panama Canal.

The United States paid Colombia $25m in 1921; (seven years after completion of the canal,) for redress of President Roosevelt’s role in the creation of Panama, and Colombia recognised Panama under the terms of the Thomson–Urrutia Treaty.

The relative stability that the country enjoyed between 1903 and 1940 collapsed spectacularly though, as a bloody conflict erupted that lasted until the early 1950s, a period known as La Violencia (“The Violence”). Its cause was mainly mounting tensions between the two leading political parties, which subsequently ignited after the assassination of the Liberal presidential candidate Jorge Eliécer Gaitán on 9 April 1948. The ensuing riots in Bogotá, known as El Bogotazo, spread throughout the country and claimed the lives of at least 180,000 Colombians.

mandate for the government and rebels to negotiate a “better agreement” but both the government and rebels have repeatedly said that the deal was the best they could achieve and a renegotiation would not be possible.

Santos, who watched the results come in at the presidential palace in Bogotá, said he would send his negotiators back to Havana to meet with FARC leaders. “I will not give up,” he said in a televised address. “I will continue seeking peace until the last day of my presidency.” He also said that the bilateral ceasefire that has been in place since 29 August would continue.

Despite the shock result Colombia is enjoying a period of relative peace which it has not experienced for a long time throughout its history. Whilst the cease fire holds the government and the people are enjoying prosperity too, with the economy of the country performing strongly.

Since 2011 the country’s GDP per person grew from $7,286 USD to $7,940 in 2014. This shows stark and impressive growth in just three years. The unemployment rate has also dropped from 10.8 per cent to 8.9 per cent as job creation continues to growth with the economy.

The Colombian Conservative Party and Colombian Liberal Party agreed to create the “National Front”, a coalition which would jointly govern the country. Under the deal, the presidency would alternate between Colombians know how to do business just as much as they know how to conservatives and liberals every 4 years for 16 years; the two parties would enjoy life. In the Americas, Colombia’s reputation as a gateway to the South have parity in all other elective offices. and launch pad to the North is becoming cemented in a country that has long lived in the shadow of violence.

The National Front ended “La Violencia”, and National Front administrations attempted to institute far-reaching social and economic More than two decades after Pablo Escobar was shot dead by police on reforms in cooperation with the Alliance for Progress. In the end, the a Medellín rooftop, the stereotype of a country ridden by drugs, cartels, contradictions between each successive Liberal and Conservative kidnapping and violence is finally starting to fade. In 2008, Visit Colombia administration made the results decidedly mixed. launched a campaign titled: Colombia, el riesgo es que te quieras quedar – “Colombia, the only risk is wanting to stay”, referring to the perception As a result of the political unrest and uncertainty there emerged a number that visiting the country was still dangerous. of guerrilla groups such as the FARC, ELN, EPL, MAQL, PRT, CRS and M-19 to fight the government and political apparatus, but five out of the seven Meanwhile, Colombia’s middle class is on the rise, climbing from 16 per guerrilla groups decided to demobilize after peace negotiations between cent of the population in 2002 to 27 per cent in 2011. In the streets of 1989 and 1994.

Bogotá, Cartier, Louis Vuitton and Armani line up next to high street names Zara and Mango. The poverty rate – defined by the World Bank as anyone Following on from the largely successful peace negotiations of the early living on less than $1.25 (81p) a day – has fallen from almost 50 per cent to 90s though, FARC have been a constant problem for the government and 34 per cent over the same period. While policymakers have more to do, have remained steadfast in their aim to defeat the political establishment Colombians are lifting themselves out of poverty. of Colombia. The war between the government and the guerrilla group has been long and bloody, a war which saw a quarter of a million killed Entrepreneurial spirit means many choose to sell goods in little stalls or on and eight million displaced over half a century. the streets. Old jeans and used shoes are sold alongside trinkets and food.

An improving economy means the advertising slogans are very different Earlier this year, the current Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos was now. “Colombia, magical realism”, is homage to the country’s most famous awarded the 2016 Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts to bring peace to the author, Gabriel García Márquez, who died last year. country. In the first negotiations of their kind, Santos had attempted what his predecessors had considered impossible - a peace deal with the Colombia’s economy grew by 4.8 per cent last year, and is expected to guerrillas attempting to take down his government. grow above 4 per cent this year, despite a near 50 per cent fall in the oil price. While stagflation has left prices rising at between 6 per cent and 7 The negotiations for the peace agreement began on August 26, 2012, in per cent a year in Brazil and hyperinflation of almost 70 per cent in Havana between the Colombian government and the FARC, and neighbouring Venezuela has caused the cost of living to skyrocket, concluded on August 25, 2016. The agreement had been thrashed out Colombia’s central bank has kept inflation – which currently stands at 3.8 under international scrutiny and with great difficulty but finally a deal had per cent – close to its target of 3 per cent for more than half a decade. been reached for peace.

This stability and certainty helped to push Colombia up to 34th place in Under the agreement rejected by voters, the Farc’s 5,800 fighters and the World Bank’s “Doing Business” index last year, from 53rd place in a similar number of urban militia members would have disarmed and 2013. This is above larger economies such as Brazil and Mexico – and become a legal political party. The deal would also have allowed rebel even above Belgium and Italy. Free trade agreements have been pursued leaders to avoid jail if they confessed to their crimes such as killings, aggressively. The country has secured a dozen deals around the world, kidnappings, indiscriminate attacks and child recruitment, something that including the EU, America and Switzerland. many Colombians found hard to swallow.

With all this positivity emerging out of such a beautiful canvass, one might In a year of political upsets, Colombia joined the ranks of the UK and the expect there to be some kind of downside, but one look at the property U.S in causing a shock when it rejected the peace deal in a referendum. scene proves there are no reasons to be negative in modern Colombia.

With counting completed, the no vote won by 50.2% to 49.8%, a difference of fewer than 54,000 votes out of almost 13 million cast. Turnout was low, For the past ten years Colombia has had an unbroken trend of house price with less than 38% of the electorate casting a vote. rises, which continued in early 2016. House and apartment prices rose by 15.08 per cent (6.88 per cent inflation-adjusted) during the year leading to The verdict on the deal between the government of Juan Manuel Santos 2016, according to the Banco de la Republica Colombia (Banrep) index, and the FARC, reached after four years of intense negotiations, means it which covers houses and apartments. During the latest quarter, the index cannot now be implemented. Polls before the vote predicted that the yes rose 6.07 per cent (2.85 per cent inflation-adjusted) from the previous camp would win with a comfortable 66% share. Santos had been confident quarter. of a yes result and said during the campaign that he did not have a plan B, and that Colombia would return to war if the no vote won. His opponents, The Banrep house price index includes nine cities - the three major cities: led by former president Álvaro Uribe, said a win for their side would be a Bogotá (the capital, with a population of 7.96 million), Medellin (pop: 3.5 million), and Cali (pop: 2.3 million), plus Barranquilla, Bucaramanga, Cucuta,

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Cartagena, Colombia

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COLOMBIA FACT Area: 1,141,748 km2 Population: 48,786,100 Per capita: $14,171

Bolivar Square in Bogota, Colombia

Manizales, Neiva and Villavicencio. Colombia’s property market has seen spectacular house price rises over the past ten years with rises between 8 and 18 per cent every year for nine years.

All of these factors are now fuelling an influx of expats particularly from the U.S. but also from Europe, New Zealand and Australia. As an example of the benefits you can buy a three-bedroom, three-bathroom home in Manizales for around $450 million pesos ($150,000 USD), compared to $300,000 in Dallas, Texas. For $1.2 million pesos ($400 USD) you can rent a three-bedroom apartment in Bucaramanga’s trendy Floridablanca district, instead of paying $4,300 per month for a two-bedroom flat in San Francisco, California.

There’s also the ease of the residency status. Retirees who bring home at least $2,068,365 pesos per month ( just under US$700) can qualify for Colombia’s TP-7 visa. Typically, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs offers TP-7 visas for a duration of one to three years, but renewal is an option at the end of a term. After living in Colombia for five years on a TP-7 visa, you can then apply for residency status.

If you meet the requirements, you can apply for a retiree visa as soon as you arrive and once you get the visa, you can purchase health

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insurance, open a bank account, and legally sign contracts, such as a lease or mortgage. Colombia can also claim some of the best health care in Latin America and a 2015 report ranked 22 hospitals and clinics in the country among the top 43 in the region.

Retirees pay just 12 per cent of their income for health insurance, and one policy can cover a couple or a family with kids. Co-payments for doctor’s visits range from $2,700 pesos (less than $1 USD) to $27,900 pesos (around $9 USD) and the program caps yearly out-of-pocket expenses at $396,437 pesos (around $132 USD) to $3,171,493 pesos (a little over $1,062 USD) depending on your income.

Colombia has come a long way since the regular violence of the last century and it is possible to imagine a vibrant, prosperous and peaceful country emerging as one of the world’s major economies based on performances so far.

It has to be said that for a country so picturesque and culturally diverse it really is a shame for the rest of the world that the opportunity to live and work in Colombia hasn’t arisen before. Having said that, this opportunity has now come for everybody around the world to truly benefit from what Colombia has to offer.

Monserrat mountain, Bogota

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For more information, contact: Tel: 0161 772 1394 Web: www.fortisdevelopments.com

OFF THE SITE Did you know that Global Property Scene produces daily updates on our website? Here is a collection of our favourite pieces produced over the last two months.

Want to read more? www.globalpropertyscene.com

November 9th 2016 America confirms its new President It’s hard not to be surprised by the result of this year’s election. To many, Donald Trump proved divisive, old fashioned and hard to understand.

And yet somehow his campaign has tapped into the American majority.

Those feeling left behind by Washington saw a vote for Trump as a way of striking back, a way to topple the status quo. The polls had suggested throughout that a victory for Hillary was inevitable; they were wrong.

The campaign came to a close as the key battle grounds of Florida, Ohio and Pennsylvania backed a Trump presidency, leaving Clinton little choice but to admit defeat. In his first address as President Elect, Trump proclaimed all Americans must now unite and “bind the wounds of division.” He even spoke highly of his Democratic opponent, proclaiming; “Hillary has worked very long and very hard over a long period of time, and we owe her a major debt of gratitude for her service to our country.”

There has yet to be any public statement from the Clinton campaign, with Mrs Clinton opting not to appear at what was meant to be her victory rally in Manhattan. Many of her supporters were seen breaking down as the election results slowly turned red. It will be a very difficult

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result for Mrs Clinton to swallow, as the opportunity to become America’s first female president looked so close. She will feel the email scandal, which has dogged much of her campaign, caused serious damage to her ratings at a crucial moment.

Regardless of her private email issues, Hillary has still struggled to become a popular presidential candidate. A large proportion of the electorate felt that Washington needed a clear-out, and Hillary, who has been working on the hill for the majority of her political career, personified this resented political establishment. The wealth the Clintons had garnered from post-White House projects further alienated her from the working classes, who considered her family and colleagues white limo liberals. Probably most damaging of all was her difficulty with winning the popular women’s vote. Many remembered the disparaging comments during her time as First Lady regarding stay at home women. When accused of enabling Bill Clinton’s affairs, and of attacking the women who accused him of molesting them, many women felt she acted poorly.

It seems the Clinton campaign is best summed up by their difficulty selecting a campaign slogan. Having changed it many times, “Stronger, Together” felt flat, like a going through the motions approach to America’s problems. It suggests they weren’t sure how to tackle America’s issues.

Trump’s “Make America Great Again” struck a chord with those needing an answer to their future, and regardless of the incredible mistakes and statements made by Donald J. Trump, it proved enough to win him the most powerful seat in the world.

November 4th Two years until the James Webb Telescope is launched The Hubble telescope revolutionised the way in which we saw our place in the universe. The telescope and its 2.4 metre wide mirror were sent up into space to peer into the dark places of existence and found them to be filled with light and wonder.

Where we once saw nothing, Hubble revealed millions of galaxies, forcing us to reconsider the size of reality and how small our proud civilisation really is.

More than 25 years on from the initial launch, it is clear that Hubble is approaching the end of its lifespan and needs to be retired. Luckily, a lot of very smart people have been working to make sure we do not lose our sight again and have recently finished assembling the telescope which will replace Hubble – the James Webb Telescope.

The James Webb is scheduled to launch in 2018 and will help us see things which have previously been out of our reach.

The 6.5 metre wide beryllium and gold mirror will show us light from the very first stars formed more than 10 billion years ago. The James Webb will also be able to make out the chemical composition of distant planets, aiding us in our search for habitable planets far from our own sun and perhaps even extra-terrestrial life.

The next two years will be spent constructing the spacecraft chassis which will carry the telescope into orbit, as well as sorting out all the operational computing hardware which will make it all work. The telescope will also have to go through extensive heat and noise stress testing as well as being violently shaken to simulate the rigours of leaving the Earth’s orbit.

Once all the tests have been completed the James Webb Telescope will begin its lonely vigil looking out into the great expanse of space.

November 3rd Saudi Arabia aim for record heights

October 11th Solar power surpasses coal in the UK

Currently under construction in Saudi Arabia is the next big thing, the Jeddah Tower. This marvel of construction is set to become the world’s tallest building when construction completes in 2020.

The current record holder (The Burj Khalifa in Dubai) sits at 828 metres, this new building will top out at an incredible 1,008 metres.

The opening paragraph of the latest report on the UK’s electricity generation landscape from Carbon Brief is a big deal:

Like Dubai, Saudi Arabia see this new building as a means of putting the Kingdom on the map. The building will be placed on a 120-acre plot, surrounded by yet to be announced sections of high-rise. This area has been classed as the “Three-phase Jeddah Economic City Development” and will form the hub of Saudi Arabia’s new financial district. The total cost for the project is estimated to be around $20billion, but this price may increase as the cost of materials can vary significantly over such a long-term build schedule.

It is surprising to note the building had initially been planned to boast a height of 1.6 km (1 mile), but the geology of the area proved unsuitable for a tower of that height.

Designers HOK Architects designed the building with a triangular footprint and sloped exterior to reduce the amount of wind resistance. With a structure of such height the loads likely to be experienced towards the top will be significant, resulting in a tapered summit. The design has taken inspiration from its location, with designers sighting a building intended to look like a desert plant shooting upwards as a symbol of Saudi Arabia’s growth and future. The building also looks to add prominence to Jeddah’s status, with it located close to the holy city of Mecca.

With Saudi Arabia increasingly looking to a life without oil money, they seem to be taking a page out of the neighbour’s book. There are hopes the tower will bring change in terms of development and tourism to the city of Jeddah, which is considered the most liberal city in Saudi Arabia. The building does seem to be receiving mixed feelings from the local population, with some giving high-praise, while others feel this is yet another pointless vanity project. With the project posing as a potential economic lead weight, and the country suffering from a bad international reputation likely to distance tourism, the project seems to be an unnecessary gamble for the state to undertake.

“Saturday 9 April 2016 was the first-ever day where more electricity was generated in the UK by solar than by coal. May 2016 was the first-ever month.

The three months from June through to September was the first-ever quarter.

And now the six months to September is the first half year.”

Q2 and Q3 of 2016 are proof that a future which relies on renewable energy is not only possible, but that the world is shifting in that direction already.

The only fact anyone can agree on regarding fossil fuels is that they will eventually run out. This is inevitable no matter what new technologies are invented to extract them from the earth, or what new desecrations of the wilderness we are forced to endure in order to continue fossil fuel production.

Eventually, fossil fuels will run out and we will have to run the world using alternative, renewable sources of energy.

Luckily for us, sitting prettily up in the sky is a constant, bright source of clean energy which provides solar power directly as well as being the engine behind the winds. Utilising the giant fusion lamp we call the sun is simply a matter of will and capability – we have the latter, but the former is often lacking.

However, the report from Carbon Brief signifies a small win in the fight against a world ruled by fossil fuel energy. Q2 and Q3 saw 6,964 gigawatt hours of electricity generated through solar technologies – equivalent to 5.2 per cent of the UK’s total energy demand. In comparison, coal fired power stations generated 6,342 gigawatt hours, almost 10 per cent less.

We can only hope that this small step is built on rather than being seen as a victory in its own right. It is important that the UK continues pushing on and improving the country’s renewable energy provision. Assuming that solar power is given priority over new coal fired energy sources in the future – which is not a sure thing given the overwhelming power of the energy industry – then we might be on the path to a slightly better future.

October 10th China’s increasing pollution problem The People’s Republic of China has seen stratospheric growth over the last 30 years, as the population continues to adopt the lifestyles of the Western world. With increased access to modern technology for the masses, and the need of the many to have their own personal car, infrastructure’s fossil demands grow year-on-year.

This consumption has had a significant effect on air quality throughout the country, with China’s Ministry for Health accrediting a growth of cancer cases to the high-levels of industrial pollution.

Every year, ambient air pollution alone killed hundreds of thousands of citizens.

These high levels of pollution are produced on such a large scale the resulting sulphur dioxide and nitrogen oxides (acid rain) fall on the neighbouring cities of Seoul, South Korea and Tokyo, Japan.

With China frantically searching for a magic formula to try and keep levels down, there have been increased calls for the state to issue travel restrictions seen in country’s such as Singapore, who only allow people to use their cars on specific days to reduce congestion and pollution levels.

Despite China boasting some of the highest standards of living in the world, 500 million people in China are without safe and clean drinking water. Much of the older infrastructure remains, as people are exposed to lead poisoning from both drinking water and the air.

Much of the information compiled has been done by independent bodies, and this has resulted in China’s environmental agency insisting that the health statistics have been over exaggerated. With China looking to boost their tourist industry, it’s important for them to regain control of this issue as it is likely to hamper the economy in the long term.

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THE GLOBAL HOUSING MARKET How is the UK housing market performing against the rest of the world?

Words : Will Leyland | View : Stephan Guarch

London, England. The UK has seen a 7.7% rise in average house prices over the last year and investors across the country are quietly celebrating as the property market continues to outperform expectations amid the sometimes uncertain economic environment following the Referendum on membership of the European Union.

Property has acted as a safe haven for UK investors as current saving rates offer similar returns to burying money in the garden and hoping it multiplies by divine intervention. Sound investments are becoming a rare thing in the UK, and the term ‘safe returns’ is close to extinction despite the steady, if unimpressive, growth of the larger economy. Step in buy-to-let.

How do the property investment markets in the UK’s best performing cities compare with the global big hitters? Here, Global Property Scene takes a look at the performances of the best markets across the world and lines them up against the likes of Manchester, Liverpool and London.

When it comes to real estate, New York possesses one of the most diverse and sought after markets on the globe, with construction and renovations increasing steadily. Demand continues to far outstrip supply in the market, causing real affordability issues, but investment returns in this great city show no signs of receding. The city is one of the most sought after places in the world to live thanks to the lifestyle on offer, as the never-ending supply of potential tenants can attest to.

Reports from Douglas Elliman, the largest residential real estate brokerage in New York, show that the price per square foot in New York has reached $1,759 – the highest on record, marking a 31.3 per cent increase on the previous year. Average rents in the city sit at an eye watering $3,208, according to Rent Jungle, with one bedroom apartments renting for an average of $2,829 and two bedroom apartments renting for $3,618.

Manhattan in particular is seeing stratospheric price rises, with reports in The Guardian claiming an average property listing price of $1.87m in 2016.

New York San Francisco The Big Apple, NYC, Empire State or simply New York, this city will always sit near the top of any list of top global performers in any context. With neighbourhoods and boroughs like Wall Street, 5th Avenue, Times Square and Manhattan, it is no surprise that New York has been, and remains, one of the top property markets in the world.

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The home of the Golden Gate Bridge and Alcatraz, San Francisco is home to some of the most stunning scenery and vibrant atmospheres on the West Coast of America. Sometimes overshadowed by her nearby rival LA in the glamour stakes, there is one place where ‘San Fran’ is

Fifth Avenue, New York

Golden Gate Bridge, San Francisco

outperforming most of the competition – property. San Francisco is seeing property values rise and rental yields increase.

The city has seen a resurgence in Bay Area property values as it reaffirms its status as an industry and digital commerce powerhouse. Businesses and urban lifestyle seekers are finding the area irresistible.

San Francisco joins an elite list of cities that have not only thrown off the shackles of the 2011 real estate slump, but are in fact exceeding previous highs to set new records.

According to online real estate experts Zillow, the average house price in San Francisco reached an incredible $1,110,000 in 2016 – an increase of 1.1% over the last twelve months. The price per square foot in San Francisco currently sits at $948 while the average rent is now a huge $4,200 per month.

European Capitals Any list of property market powerhouses would be incomplete without the

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likes of Madrid, Rome, Paris and Berlin. The European housing market has been struggling under the weight of the Eurozone crisis for some time now but, as economic optimism starts to return, so too does the resilience of housing markets across the continent.

Powerhouses in the US may certainly lead the way in headline figures but it would be hard to argue that the European cities on this list don’t outrank our Atlantic cousins in terms of glamour.

Berlin is a good average indicator when considering top tier European cities, and its housing market has experienced strong growth in 2016.

Figures from Gate Berlin back this up, with price per square metre in the city ranging from €1,000 per square metre in the more affordable regions to €5,500 per square metre in the most upmarket locations. The average rent in the city is approximately €850 per month, a figure which is always increasing due to supply outstripping demand.

The story is much the same across the great cities of Europe. All of them have a shortage of housing at the same time as their populations are growing rapidly. This creates good conditions for anyone with the capital

to invest at this time. The strong performance seen across 2016 is set to continue on into the future.

With both Europe and the USA performing strongly, how do their UK counterparts fare in comparison?

London The UK’s investment champion and a global investment heavyweight, London sits at the top of the UK’s property market.

Home to the Houses of Parliament and Buckingham Palace as well as being the preeminent financial capital of the world, London ticks almost all the boxes for people looking to invest in the prime property market.

Commercial and residential property alike has been on a seemingly gravity defying ascent within the capital since the 1980s, but some are beginning to warn that the market is reaching its peak and analysts are beginning to divert investors’ attention to other UK cities.

The London market is currently awash with of contradictions, with the Financial Times reporting a 1.1% drop in the value of prime property in the capital over the year to November 2016.

With the classically high rental returns the city is known for beginning to falter in recent months, investors appear to be seeking value in the market by casting their nets over the outer boroughs. The most recent figures from property portal Rightmove show property values increasing over the last year by 14 per cent in Newham, 16 per cent in Barking and Dagenham and 11 per cent in Croydon.

The price per square foot in London remains very high, sitting at £1,250 according to TotallyMoney.com. The capital’s average rental cost is equally daunting, with 2016 seeing the £1,500 per month threshold being crossed.

Investment in London remains a strong proposition regardless of the climate, but it seems many investors previously keen on premier property opportunities in the city centre are now prepared to seek value further afield, not only in the outer boroughs of the city but in the UK’s Northern cities which are on an upward trajectory.

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The Shard, London

Manchester Once the industrial capital of the world, Manchester still retains much of the beauty, innovative spirit and creativity which saw its influence spread across the world. The government’s Northern Powerhouse scheme, launched to rebalance the UK’s economy away from London, promises a new era of productivity for Manchester, and property investors are looking North in anticipation.

In response to these measures, new construction and the renovation of existing local property have been going into overdrive both in the city centre and across the wider Greater Manchester area. The neighbouring city of Salford has seen particularly rapid development in recent years as developers take advantage of the ideal conditions to build – affordable land, large numbers of tenants moving to the area, and a glut of hungry investors looking to take capitalise.

The LendInvest Buy-To-Let Index shows Manchester appearing in the top 20 areas in the UK for rental yields, returning 6.8 per cent compared to the UK average of 5 per cent. Add in projected capital gains of more than 20 per cent in the next four years and it is easy to see why the city has become a favourite of investors from around the world.

Liverpool The Northern Powerhouse project is really starting to gain traction in the North West, with construction booming and direct investment increasing at an impressive rate. The high speed rail and transport improvements proposed for the North West are beginning to take shape, and promise to further increase the region’s profile.

History and beauty have never been an issue for Liverpool, a sporting mecca and birth place of The Beatles, but the future promises to be even more exciting and interesting than the past.

Impressive new developments across the Liverpool skyline have seen attitudes and opportunities changing for the better across the city and investors are seeing huge value in the market, especially in comparison to London. City centre apartments are in particularly high demand in Liverpool with the average rent standing at approximately £820 per month – comparable to neighbouring Manchester and regularly providing investors with rental yields of around 6 per cent.

In Liverpool, property sales almost doubled in Merseyside areas near the city itself such as Kirby, Huyton and Prescot. This mirrors the type of growth in Manchester and London as people look to move to the cities but perhaps prefer to live on the outskirts rather than directly in the centre.

The big cities of the world continue to defy gravity and retain all the features that make them heavyweight global property investment destinations. Their pre-eminence in other areas such as business, tourism and economy has also been maintained in 2016 and it is difficult to see that changing in the future. New York, San Francisco, Berlin and London will always provide good rental return and capital gains for investors – and in return the initial capital cost will remain high – but as the world economy continues to recover from the 2008 financial crisis and develop further resilience, investors are looking for alternative opportunities and English cities continue to lead the way in this area. Northern cities such as Manchester and Liverpool provides investors with a golden opportunity to get in at the ground floor of market which is rapidly being pushed upwards by growing populations and a booming Northern Powerhouse economy.

Manchester is now considered to be the UK’s second city and recently has stolen a march on London as an investment property hotspot. There are indications that the capital’s property market has begun to reach peak levels at the same time as the Manchester market has begun a meteoric rise. Liverpool is following Manchester’s lead and, with increasing numbers of new developments being announced on a regular basis, it might not be too long before we see the Northern powerhouse cities crashing the party of the global elite.

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Beetham Tower, Manchester

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Annual NET returns are projected at 5.0%

£69,950

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INVESTING IN CANADA Is Canada the stable market all investors are looking for?

Words : Will Leyland | View : Alberto Loyo

As the US still reels from one of the ugliest presidential campaigns in living memory, the legacy of Barack Obama’s stunning victory in 2008 is beginning to fade. Among the American electorate there is a feeling of lingering disgust from the brutal and relentless scandal-ridden campaigns of Clinton and Trump. Comparisons between the US election and the Brexit vote in the UK are unavoidable: the two appear to be a struggle between the haves and have-nots, a war between the perceived ‘establishment’ and the anti-politics of Donald Trump and Nigel Farage.

The populations of both countries appear to be reaching, or have reached, boiling point. The politics of fear, anger and populism have reached their nadir and already existing divides are turning in to chasms.

Canadian Prime Minister, it perhaps hides one of the most astonishing political success stories of recent times. Although Trudeau hailed from one of Canada’s most famous political families (his father was one of the country’s most influential Prime Ministers) his prospects had looked doomed until the last minute.

The politics of hope championed by the election of Obama couldn’t be further away in the US and the UK, but one man is hoping to take the baton and achieve the completion of its legacy – Justin Trudeau. Having gone relatively unnoticed apart from his shock victory in the Canadian general election a year ago, Trudeau is attempting to be a more successful ‘rock star’ politician than his predecessors Obama and Tony Blair.

After a relentless campaign of Conservative attack adverts saying that he was “just not ready” for government, the leader was struggling to shake off the perception that he was a floppy-haired dauphin with no real political experience. As a federal election loomed, it seemed that the son of one of Canada’s most famous and influential prime ministers was set to lead the party which has long seen itself as Canada’s “natural governing party” into political irrelevance. In November 2015, however, Trudeau led the Liberals to a stunning federal election victory, sweeping 184 of 338 seats in Canada’s House of Commons and driving the Conservatives out

As things have gone quiet across global media about the wildly popular

Just a few months before the election, it seemed that Canada’s Liberal party and its leader Justin Trudeau were facing a bleak future. The party was trailing third in opinion polls after backing unpopular new anti-terror legislation introduced by the governing Conservatives, and it risked being outflanked on the left by the insurgent New Democratic Party.

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Toronto, Canada

of government after nearly a decade in power.

The result was a shockwave through Canadian politics and a wakeup call for their political establishment. Completely counter to the wild swing to the right for many of the established Western democracies, Canada decided to take a move to the left towards liberal social policy and an economic policy of investment rather than frugality. The Liberal Party had managed to achieve what David Cameron and Hillary Clinton failed to do – inspire people to vote for hope. Although there have been, and will be, millions of words written in an attempt to understand these two crushing defeats, there was an undeniable shared failure in both campaigns – people didn’t have a good enough reason to vote.

As we pass the one year anniversary of his stunning victory, perhaps now is the perfect moment to cast a critical eye over the performance of the Canadian Prime Minister’s performances both socially and economically over a country with a rich and diverse history.

Covering 9.98 million square kilometres (3.85 million square miles), Canada is the world’s second-largest country by total area and the fourth-largest country by land area. The majority of the country has a severely cold winter climate, although the southern Canadian provinces enjoy mild or warm summers. Unsurprisingly, about four-fifths of the country’s population of 36 million people is urbanised and live near the southern border, making it an ideal and rich property market and an

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interesting economic example. The heavily urbanised, and still growing, population, perhaps is also an indicator of the swing from right to left in the political sphere.

The country is officially bilingual at the federal level owing to continual 18th and 19th century conflicts between the English and the French. A large proportion of its population are fluent in both French and English, with Quebec being majority French speaking. It is one of the world’s most ethnically diverse and multicultural nations, the product of large-scale immigration from many other countries. Its advanced economy is the eleventh largest in the world, relying mainly on its plentiful natural resources and well-developed trade networks.

As one of the large G8 bloc of countries, what happens in Canada matters to the world, and at the moment the performance of its economy a leading light in an environment of cuts and austerity. It’s not just voters who have fallen for Mr Trudeau: his government has won plaudits from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the G20. Not just that - the Liberals have done so through higher fiscal spending, going against conventional wisdom in rich countries. So just how has Trudeau done it?

Weary after almost a decade of Conservative rule, the Liberals needed a policy to distinguish themselves from the NDP, their leftist rivals, with whom they were at risk of splitting the left-wing vote. Trudeau abandoned previous pledges to balance the budget (as his opponents were promising)

and instead pledged to spend C$125 billion ($96 billion) on new infrastructure. Voters loved it, the Liberals had a hook to campaign on and the NDP vote collapsed.

The approval of the IMF and the World Bank showed that there is more to Trudeau and his government than a well-paid PR agency. When his finance minister, Bill Morneau, handed down the new government’s first budget in April, the size of the federal deficit for 2016/17 was almost C$30bn, or nearly as much as Mr Trudeau had promised over four years. Yet it found favour with international organisations. In its most recent assessment, the IMF said it “welcomes” the additional spending; high praise from such a restrained organisation. Other economists echoed their sentiment: Paul Krugman described the plans as “truly responsible fiscal policy”. And the G20’s most recent communication pledged to use flexible fiscal policy to stimulate growth; a nod to the fact that many of the club’s other members should follow Canada’s lead.

A big exporter of oil, Canada is suffering a slump in investment thanks to low oil prices. Its economy needs a boost and, at a time of unprecedented cheap credit, the government is borrowing more in order to stimulate growth. Since the financial crisis, developed economies have insisted on running restrained fiscal policy to reduce debt while relying on low interest rates to grow demand. So far, that strategy has been less than a qualified success. Growth has been moderate and demand has not picked up sufficiently to lift interest rates from the basement. Canada is in a better

position than almost any other rich country to take advantage of low rates: it didn’t suffer a big downturn after the financial crisis, and it has a history of fiscal restraint. It’s still a bold experiment though and others could benefit from Canada’s bravery.

Counter to its largely successful economic policy the Canadian property market isn’t performing quite as impressively. Many commentators and economists have been warning that the Canadian property market is approaching a dangerous bubble.

Jared Dillian, a financial analyst based in the US, said in an interview that Canada was approaching “extreme bubble territory” as evidenced by increasing home prices. The average home price in all of Canada is over $500,000 and this is with the average income at $40,000. Statistics from The Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA) show the average Canadian home price was $480,743 for July 2016 up from $437,430 the year before.

The latest data from Statistics Canada shows the average Canadian employee makes just over $49,000 a year.

Clearly this presents a large issue for the government and the Canadian economy. There is a perception prevailing that high home prices are being driven by off-shore money, including Chinese foreign investors, however, this only represents about 10 per cent of the activity in Vancouver and Toronto.

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Moraine Lake, Canada

A June report from a Canadian research firm blamed increasing debt and high-risk mortgages for rising real estate. Some local governments have taken steps to cool the hot housing market. British Columbia recently introduced a 15 per cent tax on foreign homebuyers in order to slow purchasing activity in areas like Metro Vancouver. Early data from the Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver suggests the tax is having the desired effect as home sales in Vancouver fell 51 per cent to 758 transactions in the first two weeks of August compared to the same period last year, according to figures.

The plan closes a tax loophole used by foreign homebuyers in Vancouver and Toronto. Economists, bankers and politicians have been growing increasingly alarmed at the skyrocketing property markets in the two cities. Under Canadian tax law, homeowners selling their principal residence get a tax benefit in the form of an exemption from capital gains taxation. The new rule will ensure only people living in their home as a principal residence prior to its sale will be able to claim that so-called “principal residence exemption”. Authorities also announced a more robust mortgage stress test on all new insured mortgages.

According to Swiss Bank UBS, of all the cities in the world, Vancouver is most at risk of having a housing bubble. The city soared to first place this year from fourth in 2015. UBS placed Canada’s third-largest city ahead of London, Stockholm, Sydney and Munich in the comparison of housing markets of 18 major global cities. In February, Canada increased the minimum down payment for new insured mortgages from 5 per cent to 10 per cent for homes above CA$500,000 ($381,000 /£296,555) a move that was targeted mostly towards the Vancouver and Toronto markets.

Concerns about the country’s two most prominent real estate markets are real but there has been significant evidence that the government are taking it seriously and the markets have, largely, responded positively to the moves with early indications of come cooling.

The Canadian government remains largely popular, and most Canadians are feeling positive about the future of the country both economically and socially. Canadian property, short term, has been a profitable endeavour but echoes the problems that the London market faced pre-2008.

Considering the government are still in a relative infancy there is no prominent feeling of alarm as they have mostly handled the economy well thus far, and confidence is high that the property issue can be resolved similarly.

Canada is an imperfect nation: examples of racialized policing and flare-ups of anti-Islam sentiments abound. Quebec still harbours secessionists who would happily see a return to 1970s Francophone nationalism—an era when many Canadians feared that the country seemed to be on the edge of fracturing. And yet today, the country is not breaking apart. Currently, larger national conversations are not about returning to a time of “greatness.” Besides news coverage that is concerned with America, the top stories in Canada are about making life better for more people.

Discussions revolve around reforming the health care system which is one of the top three factors that contribute to Canadians’ sense of national pride. Environmental issues also matter deeply to many citizens, and the government has made it a primary goal to reduce carbon emissions and disinvest from dirty energy sources. This, in comparison to an expected Trump administration made up of prominent climate change deniers. It’s a goal shared even by provinces with a lot to lose, financially speaking. A big social interest is improving relationships with indigenous peoples, especially through a rigorous government investigation of an epidemic of lost and murdered aboriginal women, who represent at least one in four Canadian female homicide victims. That’s to say nothing of Canada’s overall embrace of Syrian refugees, with the country leading the world in compassionate embrace of displaced people ravaged by war.

In a world that, at times, appears to be eating itself from the inside with division and suspicion of others, Canada is a refreshing example of what can happen when a young, hungry and hopeful champion can rise to power. Progressive and outward-looking politics as well as daring economic strategy are, for the most part, paying off for Canadians. As the UK and US battle for the top spot of doom-mongering news stories, the Canadian media stories of doom and depression are conspicuous by their absence. It is, perhaps, now the turn of Canada to show the Western world how to heal itself.

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Ottawa, Canada

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THE FINANCIAL CRASH Just how did the markets crash, and where are they now?

Words : Hannah Wilde | View : Kiev Victor

Since it first came to the forefront of consumer awareness nearly a decade ago, much ink has been spilt discussing the global financial crisis that ravaged almost every economy in the world, leading to what the International Monetary Fund called “the largest financial crisis in the US since the Great Depression”. But how much do we actually know about what caused the great financial crisis of 2008, and how in hindsight has this financial crisis truly affected the global financial market?

The beginning of the crisis The global financial crisis ultimately began and ended with the speculation of house prices across most of the developed world, with the most prominent country being the USA. Many believed the US property market was infallible thanks to its significant year-on-year growth in the 1990s to early 2000s. At this time everyone wanted a piece of the highly profitable property market, deeming it a win-win investment—receiving dividends every month from the successful payment of a mortgage, or the repossession of an ever-increasing asset if the debt defaults. So either way, investors had the potential to be paid handsomely on their initial investment. However, the trouble began when financiers began introducing complex instruments like securitization into the mix, forever muddying the waters of the

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mortgage market the world over. These securitizations—ironically designed to reduce risk and encourage lending—allowed banks to pool various mortgage loans into assets sellable to investment banks, thus offloading both the potential rewards and risks onto others.

Soon demand for these financial instruments was so large that securitization of mortgage debt became the norm all across America, with banks borrowing more money to create and sell on yet more combined debt. Much to the chagrin of Wall Street however, the seemingly endless stream of creditworthy people dried up sooner than they wanted or expected—investors and bankers alike had hit the jackpot with securitizing mortgages, so they didn’t want the good times to end before they’d even really begun. Adamant there was still more profit to be had from the seemingly infallible property market and unwilling to surrender their newfound revenue stream, they began looking elsewhere to continue their golden streak.

As the steam ran dry of creditworthy people seeking a mortgage, financiers then began to widen the pool of borrowers to include less creditworthy applicants. As history dictates, lending to creditworthy people who can afford to pay back their loan is one thing, but it’s quite another to lend to people you either know cannot afford the loan, or one that wasn’t even afforded a cursory credit check before approving a loan. Here the

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Charging Bull, New York

The landmark Charging Bull in Lower Manhattan represents aggressive financial optimism and prosperity

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market got muddied even further, because in with the ‘good’ debt (the loans taken out by people who could afford the repayments) was now a myriad of ‘bad’ debt (credit-adverse people convinced to take on loans they could barely afford). Still the alarm bells didn’t ring in the minds of the financial elite who were making these transactions—their trust was still placed blindly in the continuing success of the housing market, adamant that these bad debts could be consolidated by repossessing and selling on the homes of those who could not pay (and for a hefty profit, no less).

This worked fairly successfully in the early years of the new millennium, but as the number of sub-prime mortgages entered the mainstream market and became securitized to be sold on as ‘good debt’ alongside prime mortgages, so too did the level of risk undertaken by the investors who bought all these mortgages in blind faith that—whether paid or defaulted—these loans would still be profitable. Such was the easy accessibility of credit in the days of sub-prime mortgages that between the years 2000-2004, American households took on $3 trillion in mortgage debt (in which somewhere between a third and a half of which were funded by foreign money).

This was yet another danger sign—the US’s dependency on foreign money to fund their near-obsessive securitization of debts. Bad enough if these bad debts were being paid for from the pocket of eager Wall Streeters, but the fact is that banks borrowed money from almost every available lender in the developed world while they were riding high on the trading of mortgage debt. And thus the stage was set for a fall of epic proportions: sub-prime lending was hidden in securitizations which financiers were happy to sell on, blissfully unaware of the ticking time-bomb they were unleashing on the market. Financial institutions couldn’t see past property as an ATM machine, an endless stream of cash that will never run dry–an oversight that was destined to be their undoing.

The domino effect As suddenly as the boom started, people began to realise that, as with anything, there are limits to how far economies could be stretched based on bad debt. As more and more sub-prime loans were being taken on by people who could not keep up their repayments, the level of repossessions were going through the roof. This in turn had a huge impact on the market that people were soon realising was not only fallible, but beginning to buckle before their very eyes. Repossessed properties swamped the market in one fell swoop, so much so that available supply far outstripped demand. This significantly decreased the value of the entire market, and suddenly Wall Street’s comfort blanket was gone.

Homes were no longer rising in value—in fact, they were significantly decreasing in value. And with a whole batch of bad debt only recouped by the reselling of said homes, Wall Street all too soon found itself in quite the quandary. It had all this bad debt, and no way of consolidating it. The good days were all too quickly turning into nightmares.

This fact was realised with sickening clarity in the early months of 2008, as the new year signalled not just the end of the boom years, but the beginning of a new era altogether. Loans were defaulting across America at a worrying pace, with each repossessed home worth a fraction of the loan’s original value. This caused significant cash-flow issues for the lender, as they still had to repay the loan from the banks used to fund the transaction in the first place. Thus a vicious cycle of debt ensued, with no real resolution in sight.

As houses tumbled in value, so too did the US financial system, one by one in the ensuing months of 2008. The turning point of the new era truly began with the collapse of Lehman Brothers, a trusted investment bank with over 158 years’ experience, followed closely by the takeover of Merrill Lynch and many others. By this time it was too late for warning signs that all was not well on Wall Street—bankruptcies were no longer restricted to those who were shoehorned into mortgages they could barely afford.

The epidemic was now spreading like wildfire across the very financial institutions that unknowingly brought about the property bubble burst they couldn’t (or didn’t want to) foresee.

The truth was now unavoidable: the stratospheric rise of risky borrowing led to speculative bubbles which created temporary prosperity, in itself leading to mass corporate collapse and mass global recession in the real economy. The bubble had well and truly burst, and the era of the credit crunch began.

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Trading Floor, New York Stock Exchange

The immediate aftermath Anyone familiar with the basics of economics would recognise that what inevitably follows a crisis of this magnitude is a credit crunch. Likening the effects of the credit crunch to something akin to a heart attack, Global Research commented: “Every modern economic activity depends for their day-to-day activities on the continuous flow of borrowing and lending—if not dealt with properly, the whole system immobilises”. And this is exactly what happened in the aftermath of the global economic crisis.

Realising their gargantuan miscalculation and lapse in judgement, the entire financial market across the world ground to a halt, with lenders steadfastly refusing to lend to either fellow banks or consumers.

The flow of capital was virtually non-existent as bankers surveyed the damage in the market, analysed their level of bad debts and tried to come up with a tangible contingency plan. In the end the majority of financial institutions were forced to rely on Government bail-outs, corporate buy-outs, or nationalisation to cleanse themselves of all their toxic (and now worthless) debts.

The scope of this crisis was truly being realised: Estimates predict that the global economic crisis caused a tremendous $14.5 trillion of damage to the economy, equivalent to 33 per cent of the value of the world’s companies. In the aftermath of one of the biggest financial bubble bursts in modern history, there was a world credit loss of a massive $2.8 trillion as of October 2009, with Bloomberg estimating that US taxpayers alone needed to foot a bill of $9.7 trillion to cover bailouts and rescue packages, and European countries like the UK forking up an additional $2 trillion.

Therefore, it was no surprise that global growth in 2009 was at its lowest rate for almost 60 years, at 0.5 per cent.

8 years on…

Still reeling from the crisis that shook the entire global financial infrastructure to its very core, it would not be hyperbolic to say that the financial world hasn’t been the same since the 2008 crisis, a shadow of its former self. Naturally given the sheer size of the crisis, it took years for the dust to settle and for confidence to return to the market.

It seems as if the world financial market is now back on track in terms of

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growth levels, trading and borrowing—the cash injections in the market from Governments and corporate takeovers well and truly resurrected the market, but there is one market that hasn’t recovered to its pre-crisis highs: the mortgage market. Debt levels skyrocketed during the boom years, and in the following years of adversity there was a long trail of consumer debt left in its wake. By 2007, US household debt had reached an unprecedented 100 per cent, and by 2009 figures showed that US households spent more of their disposable income on debt repayments (14 per cent) than on buying food (13 per cent). However, even in 2016 the shadow of the economic crisis is still very much evident in almost every market in the world.

To use America’s transatlantic allies as a prime example, even residents in the UK are feeling the repercussions caused by the ‘cheap money, easy credit’ mentality of 2008. The UK was very much guilty of following America’s lead and profiteering from the sub-prime mortgage market in their own mortgage landscape, so much so that Citigroup valued Britain’s external debt in 2009 at a huge 400 per cent of their GDP, the highest in the G7 by a considerable margin. This led to lenders flocking very much to the other end of the spectrum—whereas in 2008 they were foolhardy in

their eagerness to lend to anyone who was in the market for a mortgage (whether creditworthy or otherwise), today lenders are not just erring on the side of caution, they are very much resolute in their aversion to lend to anyone with even the slightest blemish on their credit record. If that’s not enough, lenders are insisting on a sizeable down-payment on their loan, with the average UK property now demanding a 30 per cent deposit (equivalent to in excess of £63,000 based on the average property value of £211,230).

Whether you believe, as British anti-debt campaigner Ann Pettifour does, that the financial crisis was caused by “the stupidity, poor economic analysis and sheer ignorance of those central bankers, politicians and auditors”, one thing is for sure—the aftermath of the financial crisis brought about some much needed regulation into a market once led by speculation, guesswork and blind faith. The financial markets now have their eyes wide open, and are a lot more careful about the money going out of their pockets. Whatever you think of the financial crisis of 2008, we’re all better off with a more regulated and less speculative financial market…aren’t we?

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HEART OF GOLD Humans on Mars by 2025

Words : Alex Timperley | View : SpaceX

Mars is currently the second most popular planet in the solar system. It is not unusual to see satellites orbiting the planet or man-made rovers exploring the surface – but what about people?

The idea of landing people on the surface of Mars has existed as a fantasy in the minds of science fiction writers for many years. Actually making that a reality has proven to be far harder and, so far, beyond us both technologically and in terms of how much it will cost. Will the Red Planet always remain a pleasant dream crossing our sky, slightly out of reach?

The advances of the last decade or so suggest that a life on Mars may be closer than ever before.

The idea of people on Mars is one we should start getting used to over the next decade. Following Elon Musk’s landmark SpaceX talk to the International Astronautical Conference in September about colonising the planet, Global Property Scene looks at the big questions: Why should we go to Mars? And how might we achieve this improbable feat?

inspired our distant ancestors to look over the next hill, to migrate across continents and to cross the oceans. Space is the logical next step and walking down the next unknown path may see our destiny as a species lie beyond the blue skies of home.

SpaceX’s migration plan is driven by this human urge to adventure, but also the need to fight against an existential risk. If humans remain a single-planet species then we will certainly face extinction in the future, whether that is because of nuclear war, climate change, an asteroid impact or anything else. If we do not leave Earth, what Musk calls the “lamp of consciousness” will one day be extinguished.

The Earth has already seen five mass extinction events and is overdue for a sixth. Each of the previous extinctions wiped out between 60 per cent and 95 per cent of life on the planet and there is no reason to think the next one will be less severe. Human society is so dependent on electrical and satellite-based technology that any large scale event could be a disaster even if we are not completely wiped out.

Why go to Mars?

The simple reason is to pursue the human imperative to explore which

We have the capability and the means to save ourselves, all that is lacking is an understanding of the potential danger and the will to deal with it

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CRS-6 Falcon 9 in Hanger, SpaceX

proactively. Elon Musk has described creating a city on Mars as “life insurance for the species�. A self-sustaining city which can exist without shipments from Earth must be the goal in case everything goes wrong at home and spaceships can no longer be sent to Mars. Musk estimates that for a colony to be self-sustaining it will need to consist of at least one million people.

Simply assuming the continued survival and flourishing of our advanced society is a long term risk we might not be able to afford.

However, Mars is not all bad. Despite only having 11% of the mass of Earth and being 50 per cent further away from the Sun, there are some very useful similarities. The length of a Martian day is similar to that on Earth, and there is a recognisable seasonal cycle which is helpful for the lifecycle of both humans and any plants we take with us. There is water in the form of ice caps at the poles and mid-latitude glaciers which could be turned into fresh drinking water by our intrepid explorers. The gravity on Mars is a manageable 38 per cent of Earth gravity and the chemicals in the atmosphere, water and soil can be turned into liquid oxygen and densified liquid methane to fuel a return flight.

But why go to Mars in particular?

Mars is a very horrible place and not fit for human life as we know it. The atmosphere on Mars is 100 times thinner than that of Earth, meaning that heat is not retained on the planet. Temperatures during a Martian winter can fall as low as -195C near the polar ice caps. Midsummer at the equator sees the temperature reach a balmy 20C in the daytime, but even then they drop back to -73C at night. Not that you would want to be outside anyway, given that there is a complete lack of breathable air on the planet.

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The first settlers will have to be true pioneers beyond anything ever required of migratory peoples on Earth, but Mars is still by far the best option for a human colony. It helps that all of the other destinations in the Solar System are in no way fit to be the site of our first colony.

Our own Moon is dead, chemically boring and has nothing to offer us in the long term.

Mercury is very close to the Sun and has no atmosphere, meaning that in the daytime you would be standing in a total vacuum which also happened to be 430C. In addition, human settlers on Mercury would have to contend with radiation from the Sun which is 2.5 times higher than the levels on Earth.

Venus would be even more uncomfortable. The atmosphere is 96.5 per cent carbon dioxide and 90 times heavier than that of Earth which would pose a challenge to settlers looking to set up habitats or simply breathe in and out. Venus also reaches temperatures of 465C and the 355 km/hour winds would blow sulphuric acid rain into your face.

The gas giants out past Mars – Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune – are not suitable by virtue of being made of gas. Even if we could somehow build a colony which floated on the surface of a non-solid planet, our brave explorers would be almost instantly crushed by extreme gravity, frozen to death and buffeted by the fastest wind speeds in the solar system. The gas giants are a long way from home in every way.

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SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket lifts off from Cape Canaveral, USA

The final potential destinations for a human colony are extra-terrestrial moons such as Europa which is home to oceans of liquid water twice as deep as anything on Earth. These moons are superficially tempting if you are easily distracted by the idea of liquid water, but we really don’t know enough about them. Even if we did, they are much further away than Mars and much colder – why would we bother at this point?

So, Mars it is. By a very long way the Red Planet is the least bad option for ensuring the survival of the species.

Is Mars close to Earth?

Yes, relatively, but also no, absolutely not. Mars is our second closest neighbour but in real terms it is still very far away. If you put all the planets in the Solar System end to end, they would fit between the Earth and our Moon. The Moon is approximately 1.3 light seconds away. A light second is the distance light travels in free space in one second - just less than 300,000 kilometres. At its closest point to Earth, Mars is over four light minutes, more than 75 million kilometres, away and it only comes this close once every 26 months due to the differing orbits of the two planets around the Sun. Mars is far beyond us at all other points in the 26 month cycle meaning that journeys to and from Mars will fall into a regular pattern based around when the planets are closest, the point known as the Opposition of Mars.

The most recent Opposition was May 2016, and the next one is scheduled for July 2018. This is worth noting, as the May 2016 Opposition might be the last one for a very long time which passes without comment. 2018 or 2020 are the speculative dates for the launch of the first SpaceX cargo pod – the Dragon 2 model – which will land on the surface of Mars using supersonic retropropulsion systems and prove the concept of human colonisation is possible. The launch and landing of this Red Dragon will be front page news across the world.

The first astronauts are scheduled to touch down on Mars in the mid- to late-2020s. The Neil Armstrong of Mars already lives among us. After the first people touch down on the surface, future Oppositions will see ever greater numbers of ships, cargo and people travelling between the two planets.

Why has no one tried this before?

No one has tried anything on the scale of what SpaceX is planning before because, as the saying goes, “space is hard.” The word “hard” is only used in this instance because there isn’t a word in the English language which accurately captures the complexity of the challenge of reaching space to start with, let alone attempting to colonise Mars.

As well as being “hard,” space is also “expensive.” NASA predicts that the cost of sending astronauts to Mars will run to billions of dollars per person when the full mission costs are taken into account. Their newly announced super heavy Space Launch System is predicted to cost, on average, $500m per launch before any other considerations, and the most ambitious plan for that rocket system is a manned loop around the Moon.

The astronomical cost associated with space travel is mainly a result of the fact that rockets have historically been a single-use piece of hardware. If aeroplanes were single use, regular people would not be able to travel the world by air. Billionaires might operate a private plane but no one else would have the means or the desire to use such an expensive form of transport.

Cost is the central aspect which differentiates the SpaceX plan from its predecessors and competitors. Musk plans to reduce the cost as far as possible, reasoning that if the journey to Mars is made affordable then people’s desire to travel will generate itself.

People crossed the Atlantic Ocean when the path was discovered and passage became affordable. There is a mass market for worldwide air travel because it is safe and affordable. If the price of space travel can be reduced sufficiently then there will be people on Mars.

The first major step taken by SpaceX was to reimagine the whole process of building a rocket. NASA rocket production is spread over multiple sites with different components being built in different places across the country by different interested parties, all of which increases the cost. In many ways the NASA process could not have been designed to increase the cost of a rocket any more efficiently. The SpaceX rocket program is

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different.

The vast majority of components for the existing family of SpaceX hardware –the Falcon 9 and the upcoming Falcon Heavy rockets, and the Dragon 1 and the Dragon 2 cargo pods – are made by the company themselves. The manufacturing process is described as “vertical” and allows SpaceX to have full control of every aspect of production.

The second and most important cost saving comes from reusability. Safely returning a booster to earth after a launch for refurbishment and reuse is something of a holy grail in the world of spaceflight. The calculations required to turn a rocket the size of a block of flats around through 180 degrees, kill the sideways momentum, bring it safely back through the burning hot atmosphere, turn it around again and then slow it down from a speed of thousands of miles per hour for a safe landing is the sort of calculation to make hardened rocket engineers weep.

SpaceX has made a habit of doing this, putting it years ahead of the competition. For comparison, NASA’s newly announced super heavy launch system is designed to be disposable, hence the $500m per launch figure mentioned earlier. SpaceX’s Falcon 9 costs less than $60m per launch. A reliably reusable rocket system could reduce the cost of space travel in the long term by a factor of 100. A new aeroplane costs approximately the same as a Falcon 9 rocket but is used tens of thousands of times over its lifetime.

The third area where costs can be dramatically reduced concerns payload.

Payload is how much weight a rocket is capable of pushing out of our atmosphere and into space. The latest Falcon 9 is capable of carrying 22.8 tonnes. The upcoming Falcon Heavy, essentially three Falcon 9 derived booster cores strapped together, is capable of carrying 54.4 tonnes into space.

The interplanetary transport ship SpaceX has proposed for the journey to Mars, tentatively named Heart of Gold, will use the newly minted Raptor engine. Each Raptor has enough thrust to push a Boeing 747 directly upwards into space. Heart of Gold will have 42 of these engines. In concert with a light carbon fibre composite frame, these engines will combine for a total of 13,033 tonnes of thrust – this is far in excess of any other rocket ever designed and will give Heart of Gold the capacity to land 450 tonnes of weight on Mars. The more gear which can be carried at once, the lower the cost of the flight.

It is worth noting at this point that the Heart of Gold is not a possible plan which might be put into action; it is what SpaceX is going to build. It is in production, including a crew compartment which will house up to 100 people. Heart of Gold will travel at 6 km/s, making the journey time to Mars a manageable three months. The microgravity environment will be designed as a comfortable space where travellers can float around and make use of the modern entertainments provided to keep them occupied as they journey to the Red Planet.

By controlling production, making their rockets reusable and hugely increasing the payload capacity of their rockets, SpaceX have come up with a plausible pathway to Mars.

As the rocket technology becomes more advanced and trips to Mars become more normalised, the frequency and capacity of ships crossing the interplanetary void will increase. If all goes to plan the size of the fleet will double with each convergence – more ships means more people which brings the goal of settling one million people on Mars closer to reality.

A three month journey once took you from Europe to the New World. The distance was extreme and the hardship suffered by the early adopters was almost unimaginable – but still people sold all their possessions and made the journey. As the route became more established and less mysterious, people began moving in greater and greater numbers.

And who knows how far this journey to Mars could take us?

The initial settlers on Mars will live in prefabricated glass and carbon fibre habitats, but terraforming the planet is not beyond our scientific means.

We have the capability to change conditions on Mars to match those on Earth. The ice caps on Mars contain enough water to cover the planet in an ocean 36 feet deep. Melting some of the ice would release the carbon dioxide trapped there and thereby densify the atmosphere. A denser

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atmosphere would trap more heat on the planet, melting more ice and stabilising the temperature. A planet-wide temperature increase of 4C would be enough to set off this chain warming reaction.

From there anything is possible. Plant and microbial life capable of survival in the Earth’s polar regions could be introduced once Mars is slightly warmer and slightly wetter. Small plants and mosses will over time lead to the planting of great forests. Plants mean photosynthesis which means breathable oxygen which means life as we know it could one day exist on Mars.

Once we have learned how to travel between planets and terraform them to support human life there is no limit on where we might one day end up.

From Earth to Mars, from Mars to Europa, Enceladus and Ganymede. From there, one day, to the stars.

Life insurance for the species.

No guarantees Speculating about humans colonising the rest of the solar system and the galaxy is nothing more than a flight of fancy at the moment. Technologies we cannot yet imagine will have to be invented and hundreds or thousands of years will pass before we can seriously consider it. In the meantime there is no harm in letting the imagination run away a little on this subject, especially considering that the first real leap into the black ocean surrounding our Planet might well happen sooner than we think.

It should go without saying that the odds are stacked very highly against SpaceX and Elon Musk and everyone else looking to go to Mars. It is far away and inhospitable. The monetary cost is extreme and even the cut price SpaceX model is facing a steep uphill struggle to get enough funding with question marks already hanging over the projected price tag attached to the mission.

It may not go perfectly, but thanks to innovators such as SpaceX we are currently closer to Mars than anyone else in the history of the world. For the first time we can look up at the red dot crossing our night sky and know that it is within reach.

The one certainty is that the human race is close to having our first real go at colonising another planet. Even if SpaceX fails, its technological innovations have already shaken up a stale industry and captured the public imagination. From its inception SpaceX has always been a longshot in an industry which progresses slowly. The company has achieved every one of its stated goals so far but Mars is by far the most ambitious yet.

Whether it succeeds or not, Heart of Gold could carry us into the next chapter of the human story. Even a partial success will act as proof of concept for future missions; once a colony on Mars is proven to be feasible the idea will not go away. People will demand it.

All image copyright: SpaceX Š

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First test firing of a Raptor development engine, USA.

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Architecture Planning Structures Urban Design

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THE APP REVOLUTION How have mobile applications changed our lives?

Words : Hannah Wilde | View : Mike Dotta

Apps. Defined by Investopedia as “a stripped-down, functional approach to software”, apps are way more than their definition would have you believe. They are whole worlds contained within your mobile screen, whole landscapes devoted entirely to the whimsy of its owner, whether travel, leisure, gaming, exercising and navigating to name just a few. Since the emergence of the smartphone revolution—beginning of course with Apple’s inaugural iPhone in 2007—mobile phones are now so much more than a device to facilitate phone calls: they’re your alarm clock, your radio, your to-do list, your camera, your calculator, all accessible in the palm of your hand.

become a way of life. There truly is an app for everything in today’s tech-savvy society, from travel and music, though finance and photography, and even incorporates matters of the heart by having a hand in the dating world, too. There are no limits to the creativity and practicality of modern apps, helping people in every single area of its user’s life. It’s said that the average person has 36 apps downloaded on their mobile device, spending on average 3 hours 30 minutes per day on apps.

And with the rising popularity of apps—beginning of course with Apple’s App Store in 2008—the standard smartphone raised its game even more.

Alongside the universally-expected functions of a modern mobile device (phone-calls, messaging, alarms et al), apps presented the almost untold potential to develop the smartphone’s functionality even more, making them more indispensable than ever.

Travel

“There’s an app for that” isn’t just the mantra of Apple, the billion-dollar tech company said to be the founding father of the app—it has now

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Global Property Scene will review just a few sectors which have been transformed by the app revolution:

Arguably one of the most popular apps of all time falls under the travel sector. What started out as a simple idea (ability to hail a taxi cab—and pay—via your smartphone) became a reality with the birth of Uber, an app that uses revolutionary GPS technology, as well as utilising remote card payments, to make the app’s slogan “Tap and ride” a reality. Since its inception in 2009 in San Francisco, the app has been a smash success all over the world—as of 2015 the app was worth $1.5 billion, with a workforce

Uber

Deliveroo

of 6,700 in over 66 countries and 507 cities worldwide. Such is the ongoing success of Uber, the brand is becoming something of a metonym, going from relative anonymity just a few years ago to part of common lexicon. If that wasn’t enough of an indicator of success, Uber is also in recipt of its own phenomenon dubbed “Uberification”, whereby other businesses have tried to replicate the uber-successful and now world famous business model.

Another big hitter in the travel sector (and another born in San Francisco) is Airbnb, an app that has changed the way we holiday forever. Airbnb defines itself as “a trusted community marketplace for people to list, discover, and book unique accommodation around the world”—and the app does exactly what it says on the tin, matching homes to visitors based on budget and location specifications. With over two million listings in more than 34,000 cities and 191 countries worldwide, Airbnb is popularising home-sharing and lodging, with villas, flats and houses the norm. However, there are notable listings that can secure your holiday as a truly memorable experience, with some properties marketed for guests including castles, a shipping container-cum-guesthouse, yurts, wagons, tipis, treehouses, trailers, yachts—and all other manner of weird and

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wonderful locations to lay your head for the night. And all this can be secured with the touch of a screen.

Dating Perhaps completing the trifecta of revolutionary apps, Tinder has shot up the ranks of the highly profitable online dating market, but with a huge twist. Launched in 2012 by a group of friends with a shared vision, Tinder brought dating into the smartphone universe, creating an app that allowed users to swipe left or right on a person’s profile to indicate your interest (or lack thereof), with a left swipe being ‘no’ and right swipe being ‘yes’. Another revolutionary feature of the app is its use of GPS technology, meaning that you can only see the profiles of those in the immediate vicinity. The easy accessibility of this app was what enamoured the 50m+ users to embrace ‘swiping’ as the new icebreaker, with 1 billion swipes recorded and 12 million matches made each and every day. (For those who aren’t Tinder-savvy, a ‘match’ occurs when both people have swiped right on each other’s profile).

Sure, it’s easy to scorn, but facts don’t lie—According to the New York

Times, on average people log into Tinder 11 times per day, and “women spend as much as 8.5 minutes swiping left and right during a single session; men spend 7.2 minutes—all of this can add up to 90 minutes each day”. Whether you agree with apps playing cupid (I can already hear the cries of “What’s wrong with the old-fashioned way of dating!”), it cannot be argued that Tinder brought dating into the 21st century, mixing the easy interfaces of apps with the high demand for online dating—and who knows, you too could be just a smartphone swipe away from your one true love.

notion of eating out. And thus Deliveroo was born, the UK’s first restaurant delivery service, one that took off as quickly as its drivers, cyclists and motor-bikers can deliver the food. What began as a UK phenomenon soon spread, with Deliveroo now operating in the Netherlands, France, Germany, Belgium, Ireland, Spain, Italy, Australia, Singapore, Dubai, and Hong Kong and employs over 13,000 Deliveroo-ers to deliver food from the country’s restaurants straight to consumers’ homes. And guess what? All this can be ordered straight from the app.

Food

Given the success of some of the world’s biggest apps, it comes as no surprise then that since the inception of the first app store in 2008, customers have downloaded over 40 billion mobile apps, to the tune of $26 billion. That’s a staggering 13.6 million apps downloaded per day, over half a million every hour, 9,500 every minute, and a mind-boggling 158 every single second.

Yet another industry riding high on the back of the success of the app revolution is the culinary world—apps like JustEat and HungryHouse have opened the door to quick and easy takeaway delivery, all from the comfort of your smartphone. However, the latest addition takes the ease of delivery one step further. Founded in London in 2013, it seemed that Deliveroo’s founders looked into the mind-set of busy millennials to find out what they really wanted from their delivery service, and the answer was unanimous— they want restaurant-standard food, without hassle and time-consuming

However, it does have to be said that apps aren’t just created for commercial gain. Granted, the margin for financial gains from the success of an app are huge ( just look at Kim Kardashian, whose

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Airbnb

eponymously-named Kim Kardashian: Hollywood app earned a staggering $1.6 million in the first five days of release, with total takings estimated at a massive $200m+ worldwide and still growing). But apps can be so much more than that—they can be whatever you want them to be, serving whatever purpose you like.

Look at the very literally-titled Zombies, Run! app, designed and developed to incorporate a virtual reality zombie apocalypse narrative to encourage people to go out running. As well as motivating people by exploiting their Darwinian tendencies, the app serves a greater purpose of making exercise fun and engaging for the masses, utilising the smartphone to encourage behavioural changes that don’t feel like a chore. And people are buying into it—the Zombies, Run! app has been downloaded over 3 million times around the world. What’s more, this innovative idea has been so widely circulated that it has even attracted the attention of the British Government, who commissioned the masterminds behind the app (Start to Six, a London-based independent games developer) to create a self-improvement app—sans the undead theme—for the NHS to encourage people to go out walking.

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The picture can be further widened to incorporate philanthropy and community—just take the example of 16-year-old Californian teenager Natalie Hampton as a classic example. She certainly wasn’t thinking of commercial gain when she created Sit With Us, an app designed for lonely children so they can find people to sit with at lunchtimes. Natalie was certainly embracing the community spirit with her app, one designed with her own personal experiences in mind “to prevent kids from being publicly rejected and being considered social outcasts by their peers.

This way it’s very private. It’s through the phone. No one else has to know”.

So whether you want to find true love or find a lunch buddy, the perfect castle for a weekend retreat or restaurant-quality food delivered right to your door, Apple was definitely correct with their statement: there is indeed an app for that.

However, as with anything there is a limit. Given the seamless transitions of apps into everyday life, you do have to pose the question: how far is too far? For many, an app too far could be the school in Worcester,

Massachusetts, who require students from Grades 6-12 (schoolchildren aged 11-18 for readers on the other side of the pond) to own and carry an iPad in lieu of seemingly antiquated schoolbooks, pens and pencils.

And it goes further still: more than 600 school districts in the USA, including Texas, Utah, Kentucky, Massachusetts and Illinois, now require entire grade levels to carry an iPad on which to conduct the lion’s share of their schooling as part of their curriculum both inside and outside the classroom. More and more children are becoming yet more tech-savvy, with those barely able to say “smartphone” able to unlock the device and search the vast directory of YouTube to find the latest episode of Peppa Pig. Surely this is a step too far, when children are foregoing the sensory palpable pleasures of playing with a trainset or stomping in puddles in favour of poking, swiping and watching a screen for hours on end.

Whether you have fully embraced the growing popularity of apps or not, you can’t deny it—by the time you’ve finished this article around 38,000 new apps will have been downloaded all over the world. The app revolution is well and truly here to stay.

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ALTERNATIVE WINTER ESCAPES Where to go this Christmas for an alternative festive break?

Words : Emma Martin | View : Roland Shainidze

Holiday: a term we’re all familiar with, but one that has a different meaning to each and every one of us. The word itself derives from the Old English hāligdæg, or ‘holy day’, and is traditionally time reserved for the observation of important points in the religious calendar, or days of cultural importance.

While some people’s idea of a perfect Christmas is wrapped in tradition, others are seizing the opportunity to embrace new and exciting getaways.

Escaping yearly rituals can prove refreshing. Alternative cultural experiences create memories like never before and enlighten travellers, during a time of self-reflection around the turn of the new year.

However the relevance of the phrase has broadened. It has evolved to fit our own modern reality and the perceptions of what time to reflect and recuperate really means.

Breaking the habit

Across the globe different people are gearing up for the festive season.

From Diwali and Hanukkah, to Kwanzaa and Christmas, winter is a time that cultures around the globe come together to celebrate their own diverse beliefs.

However, while 2016 draws to a close, there’s no denying that religious holidays are becoming more and more secular as the world becomes more connected and multicultural. In fact, Christmas and New Year is celebrated in almost every country worldwide and most of us, in some way, will be looking to take time off work to spend enjoying the last few weeks of the year.

Advent is almost upon us. Like clockwork, the darkest, coldest season comes to life with bright lights, flickering candles, gift-wrapped boxes, swathes of decorations and rich foods to line our stomachs.

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Travel association ABTA, who keep a keen eye on travel trends, share an annual ‘Holiday Habits’ report with the public that demonstrates ever fluid fluctuation within the market. Like anything, holidays go in and out of fashion - with the demands and desires of avid travellers transforming year on year.

ABTA’s recent report found that the number of people taking holidays (both international and domestic) in 2016 was up by 9% on the previous year - the highest it’s been since 2011.

One contributing factor that’s been consistently attributed to a growing demand in the travel and tourism sector is the relentless pace of our modern lifestyles. As professionals seek new and alternative ways to alleviate stress, the concept of what makes a holiday has diversified to accommodate for individual needs and a demand for unique travel.

ABTA has also recognised the ‘once in a lifetime’ or ‘bucket list’ trip to be the most favoured experience in 2016. With the increasing ease and

Mount Fuji at Kawakuchiko, Japan

Toronto, Canada

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accessibility of air travel, people want more than the conventional winter beach holiday. Popular trips now range from cruises, city breaks and ski trips, to music festivals and safaris.

We’re all creatures of habit, yes, but for many Christmas has become not much more than an inconvenience. From the economic pressures of buying gifts and crass, drunken family members, to the holiday weight you can never seem to get rid of and eight weeks of nothing but Christmas classics on the radio.

As we look to shake off the cobwebs and welcome in the New Year, maybe it’s be time for a change?

Global Property Scene has rounded up some of the alternative ways you could spend the festive season: Japan For a truly once in a lifetime experience, head to the small mountain town of Karuizawa, Japan for a white Christmas like no other. Just a short train ride from Tokyo, this elegant and relaxing area is famed for being a holiday favourite of John Lennon and Yoko Ono. A hidden gem, Karuizawa is located at the bottom of Mount Asama, and has much to offer. Located near Onsen hot springs, you can soak in the natural hot healing waters amongst the untouched natural rivers and forests, participate in winter sporting activities, go for a moonlit walk in Yagasaki park and experience its wonderful light display, or do a spot of retail therapy at the Karuizawa Prince Shopping Plaza.

While not a religious celebration in Japan, Christmas is a time to give back to the community and show appreciation for one another. The Karuizawa Winter Festival, which epitomises this theme of togetherness, and holds close links with Valentine ’s Day, opens in December with live performances from brass bands, a candle-lighting ceremony and a magnificent fireworks display.

In February the Festival takes on a different theme, playing host to a number of events across the month that encapsulate an atmosphere of romance - making for the perfect couple’s winter break.

Australia Swap your turkey dinner for sizzling prawns on the barbie, scarves for a swimming cossie, and snowmen for sandcastles. As the northern hemisphere is bracing against a cold winter, in Australia the weather is just starting to warm up for the start of summer. > Bondi Beach: An Australian tradition, this party pulls in backpackers from across the globe to enjoy a day filled with surfing Santas and a Christmas lunch of barbequed meats and shrimp. > Whitsunday Islands: White sands and clear blue coastline makes the 74 Whitsunday Islands a paradise like no other. Situated near the centre of the Great Barrier Reef, witness one of the world’s greatest wonders by a day scuba-diving among the dazzling corals and schools of tropical fish. > Gold Coast: This city in southeast Queensland is a veritable playground of theme parks, restaurants, gold clubs and nightclubs. Known also for its wide surf beach this is the perfect metropolitan cum tropical destination.

Australia is certainly a unique destination, with the expansive country offering a wide variety of choice when it comes to holidaying. Depending on the length of your stay, you could choose to travel around and really experience the best of what a Christmas down under has to offer.

Canada Taking winter to the extreme, Canada offers some of the most beautiful natural landscapes, with ice blue glaciers, jagged snow tipped mountain tops, and deep green forests. Visit the vast wilderness of Jasper National Park for an adventure holiday like no other.

This alpine park is the largest in Canada and offers a range of activities and organised holidays which include horseback riding along lake shores, husky dog sledding, white-water rafting, canoe tours or a walk across a frozen river in the The Maligne Canyon, taking in the breath-taking and

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Dubai Marina, UAE

unique ice formations.

Dubai

Stay in your own log cabin or traditional inn to get a true taste of the alpine lifestyle or, if you’re wanting a more luxurious base, there are a number of hotels in the nearby ski village of Banff, including the five star Fairmont Hotel.

Christmas is certainly a time for indulgence. So if your winter break needs spicing up then where better to take a break than Dubai? Famed for its extensive shopping areas, lavish hotels, and a culture bound in rich luxury and extravagance, Dubai certainly comes alive in December.

Hamburg

If you’re looking to soak up some winter sun by the pool (the average temperature is 26C), this might be the destination for you. Come nightfall you can spend your evening at the exclusive Atmosphere bar lounge of the world famous Burj Khalifa, and enjoy one of their signature cocktails whilst taking in breath-taking views of the city.

During the winter months the historic German City of Hamburg is abundant with the smell of roasted walnuts, mulled wine and cinnamon, as the Christmas markets take over and create an unforgettable annual city-wide event.

Get lost between the wooden stalls of the markets with a traditional Feuerzangenbowle (or ‘fire punch’) in hand, and sample the bountiful delights of the food stands which offer fresh gingerbread, crêpes or German bratwurst and much more.

Hand-crafted toys, confectionary, jewellery and decorations amongst other things are also on offer, but be sure not to miss the Hamburg Christmas Parade which takes place every Saturday - a glittering and gleaming display of dancing, singing and revelry.

Hamburg is also a great place to soak up German culture. Why not go for afternoon tea in style whilst overlooking the expansive Binnenalster lake?

Or experience the city from one of its traditional double decker bus tours?

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No trip to the leisure capital of the United Arab Emirates would be complete without brunch – a perfect way to top off your Christmas day – but make sure to do your research on where to go, as each establishment has a unique approach to this popular experience.

And if you need to pick up some last-minute gifts you can always stop off at The Dubai Mall, which houses over 1,200 outlets and a myriad of seasonal entertainment and activities.

Malaysia If eating, drinking, and long to-do lists leave you feeling like you’re still in need of a holiday come January, then starting your New Year’s resolutions early might be just what you’re looking for.

Where better to forget the stresses of the holiday period than in the remote tropical jungle of Malaysia at the Banjaran – a five star resort nestled in the 16.19-acre valley of limestone hills.

It’s hard to imagine a more enchanting excursion however, and one which could truly put the magic back into Christmas for those struggling to get into the spirit of things.

This hot springs retreat is the epitome of luxury and escapism, and offers different wellness programmes to suit your needs, with focus on detoxification, longevity, and rejuvenation among other more tailored programmes aimed at weight management and personal fitness.

But if that sounds like too much hard work for a holiday this retreat also boasts a thermal steam cave – a natural sauna experience, geothermal hot spring Jacuzzis, crystal caves where you can practice the art of Reiki, and a jungle trek through the limestone forest, offering the opportunity to truly be at one with nature.

Well known for being the home of Santa Claus himself, a trip to the grotto certainly can’t be passed up. Yet there are many other events that put Lapland on the top list of places to go for an alternative winter trip...

In the evenings kick back and relax in style in Jeff’s Cellar – a wine bar set in the unique setting of one of the Banjaran’s limestone caves, complete with natural water features and huge list of tempting organic wines.

Don’t forget to book in a short consultation with one of the retreat’s practitioners to get the most out of your stay.

Other alternative activities include an unforgettable day excursion on the former Icebreaker of the Finnish government, Sampo. Take in the power of this historic vessel as it smashes through the 6 feet deep ice off the Gulf of Botina. The side trip includes a tour of the ship, as well as the chance to take a dip in the broken ice for those brave enough to brace it.

Lapland

There’s no better way to top off your holiday than with a reindeer safari, complete with outdoor lunch, a ski lesson, or even a spot of ice fishing with the locals…

For those who don’t want to give up all of the customs that come along with Advent, Finnish Lapland is the perfect place for a festive getaway.

You’ll need to brace yourself for bitter weather if you are planning to go during December as the average temperature ranges between 0 to -20, but can fall as low as -40 during particularly cold spells!

Artic Resort, Kakslauttanen, located in Saariselkä Fell, offers the unique chance to stay in a state-of-the-art glass igloo whilst surrounded by breath-taking nature. From here you can fall asleep looking at the stars, and even get the chance to see the Northern Lights – an ethereal and astounding natural light show.

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BEST VALUE DESTINATIONS Where should you visit in 2017?

Words : Alex Timperley | View : kakoki

Going on holiday to escape the hustle and bustle of the modern world is one of the great pleasures available to us in life. Without the occasional holiday it is too easy to fall into a pattern of living to work rather than working to live, and that is no fun at all.

Show-stopping cities such as New York, Tokyo, London and Paris are all well and good – these are, after all, the places where the world turns. But what if you are after a cheaper trip somewhere a bit further off the beaten track? Global Property Scene has some options for those of you looking to go somewhere different and find something a bit more unusual...

Vietnam Many people are hesitant about visiting Vietnam. The American invasion defined the Cold War era and still holds a significant sway over foreign perceptions of the nation thanks to an apparently endless pop culture obsession with the war. There is still a noticeable divide between north and south which is not surprising given that one half of the country looks out onto China and the other half is all the way around the South China Sea opposite Malaysia and Brunei. However, as a whole, Vietnam has moved far beyond the ravages of war and is an exciting, modern country.

The French-influenced capital city, Hanoi, is where Vietnam exists in the popular imagination – an endless stream of motorbikes and streets lined with food vendors selling noodles all day and night. Ho Chi Minh City in the far south is its opposite in many ways, a metropolis city which feels less traditionally Vietnamese and more like Singapore or Hong Kong. Even these big cities offer a cheap trip away with good hotels in the centre of Ho Chi Minh City known to provide a room and breakfast for as little as £5 a night.

Away from the cities life is equally affordable, and this is where the soul of the country can be found. Vietnam is characterised by its implausibly pretty landscape. You can ride over the mountains through the high passes or you can explore the extensive cave systems and underground rivers of the Phong Nha-Ke Bang National Park which hide under the north of the country. The grand rice paddies of central Vietnam are an impressive sight and a great example of the extent to which humans are able to engineer the environment. Vietnam’s coastal areas are also stunning. Secluded resorts such as Mũi Né in the south, a three and a half hour train journey from Ho Chi Minh City, offer beach holidays to rival anywhere in the world. Ha Long Bay in the north is home to emerald green seas and the thousands of limestone islands crowned with rainforests are

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a sight to see when the mist rolls in.

Vietnam’s proximity to other interesting tourist destinations such as Thailand, Indonesia, Cambodia and Laos make it a perfect place to start. It is an affordable country which has everything imaginable – the definition of a great value destination.

Galicia The Spanish coastline is well known as a tourist destination and the most popular spots have been heavily built up and commercialised over the years to best exploit this. The Galician coastline is a different proposition altogether. There are busy areas of course, such as the cities of A Coruña and Vigo, but the majority of the Galician coast in the far north east of the country is an altogether different prospect and has been described as Spain’s last frontier.

Beaches fringed with pine woodland look out over the Atlantic Ocean and offer a peaceful retreat away from the crowds of tourists seen in destinations such as Barcelona, Valencia and Murcia. The rolling hills east of the regional capital, Santiago de Compostela, are equally beautiful and perfect for family walking or cycling holidays in the hot July to September season. Sights such as the Tower of Hercules, a lighthouse which has been standing a lonely vigil over the Atlantic Ocean for two thousand years, are perfect for those looking for a more culturally fulfilling holiday.

However, the main draw of a Galician holiday is the outstanding cuisine which is heavily influenced by the sea. Galician seafood is considered the best in Spain, with a particular emphasis on razor clams, cockles, baby squid and the delicious goose barnacles gathered from the Coast of Death. If you’re looking for something more substantial, the boiled octopus sprinkled with paprika and olive oil known as Pulpo a la Gallega is not to be missed.

The grilled pimento peppers sprinkled with salt are so popular that they have spread throughout the rest of Spain and the local beef is world famous. Instead of slaughtering the cows in their youth, Galician cows are left to enjoy their lives into old age before visiting the abattoir and the resulting meat is more complex and imbued with a depth of flavour unmatched anywhere else in the world.

On top of all that the local white wine, Albariño, is spectacular and has found appreciative fans around the world. It is crisp with hints of peach and grapefruit fitting perfectly with both the summer climate and the way of life in Galicia.

Galicia shares much with its neighbouring coastal areas of Asturias, Cantabria and the Basque Country, but is altogether less well known in tourism circles – for now at least. This is a great time to take advantage of a beautiful area of Spain while it is still relatively well priced.

Sri Lanka Sri Lanka, formerly Ceylon, sits only 18 miles away from the southern tip of India and shares a lot with its much larger neighbour, such as a climate tropical enough to support rainforests. This climate also means that Sri Lanka has two annual monsoon seasons and it is important to know when these are before planning your trip – it is very wet in the south west between May and July and in the north east between October and January. If you insist on staying dry throughout a holiday then the gap between January and April or between Mid-July and September is your best bet.

The biggest difference between Sri Lanka and India is the pace of life.

Where India is the sort of place to raise the blood pressure and adrenaline levels of a tourist, Sri Lanka is a much more relaxed proposition. The country is not in such a rush to get everything done and is very welcoming of foreign visitors looking to relax, making it a perfect destination for the tourist looking for something a bit different.

The capital city, Colombo, is a fantastic place to go on holiday. The commercial centre of the island, Colombo has been known to traders for over 2,000 years and takes its modern name from Portuguese explorers who made harbour at the city in 1505 AD. Since then it has passed through Dutch and then British hands and is now the centre of the sovereign nation of Sri Lanka. All of these cultural inheritances are apparent in the city to this day, making it a place where you can visit jazz clubs and rooftop bars

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Rice fields, Vietnam

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Sigiriya Lion Rock fortress and landscape, Sri Lanka

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Northern mountain range, Albania

before heading to one of the city’s world class restaurants or out into the local countryside or beaches.

If you prefer to avoid the crowds, head north. The region has in the past been a stronghold for the Tamil Tigers guerrilla warfare group but is now open again to tourists. There has yet to be a significant wave of new hotels and restaurants, making the north of Sri Lanka the definition of “off the beaten track.”

However, if you prefer a well beaten track then Sri Lanka might also be the place you are looking for. In many cases you can literally walk along a well beaten track by following paths to temples or along pilgrimage routes.

Sri Lanka is more than 80% Buddhist and there are many ancient religious sights to see, though perhaps none more impressive than the climb up Adam’s Peak. There is a site near the summit called Sri Pada which is held in Buddhist tradition to be the footprint of Buddha himself.

And the best thing about all of this? Sri Lanka is currently a very cheap

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country to visit thanks to the fact it has been somewhat overshadowed

by India as a tourism hotspot. It is possible to live very well on holiday for approximately £25 per day, eating their lunchtime dish of rice and curry and the evening meal of Kottu Rotty – flatbread stir fried with eggs and vegetables. This affordability puts Sri Lanka miles ahead of a traditional European or city break in terms of affordability, though don’t delay as prices are beginning to rise in response to its increasing renown as a tourist destination.

Albania There are not many countries which can compete with Albania for natural beauty and there are also few countries in the western world about which less is known by the general public. Albania lived through a particularly harsh Soviet-style dictatorship and has taken twenty years to truly emerge from its shadow. Add in its location in the previously unstable Balkans region to the north of Greece and it is no surprise that Albania is something of a mystery to most.

A country which has returned to prosperity and possesses both incredible scenery and an enviable Mediterranean seafront location is the perfect combination for creating a great value destination.

More than any other suggestion in this article, a trip to Albania is vital for anybody who enjoys looking at history. Albania has architectural structures going all the way back to the pre-Roman era. The Via Egnatia runs through the country and was constructed in the third century BC, most likely on top of an even older road. It was used by Julius Caesar, the apostle Paul, linked the Western and Eastern Roman Empires, was a major Crusade route and is still in use today. Elsewhere in Albania you can see ancient Illyrian tombs, previously lost Roman ruins, houses from when the Ottoman Empire ruled the land and imposing Soviet-era concrete wonders all rubbing up against each other.

industry has appeared and people have begun to flock to the Albanian coastline. The pristine beaches on the Adriatic Sea opposite Italy and the Ionian Sea near Corfu are set to become Europe’s next top budget beach holiday destination in the near future. Albania is also perfect for long road trips which take in modern cities, old crumbling villages and some of the most beautiful scenery in Europe. The food is the sort of Balkan fare which is good for the heart and soul and the drink is reassuringly strong.

Both are available in large quantities and at the sort of price which will barely leave a dent in your wallet.

Albania is a remarkable place, secluded for so long behind the triple barrier of an isolationist regime, some very tall mountains and a language which has almost nothing in common with that of any neighbouring country. ShqipĂŤri, to give Albania its native name, will not disappoint the audacious holidaymaker.

Of course, this is not meant to give the impression that Albania is a living monument to bygone ages and nothing else. As the country continues the process of opening up to the rest of the world, a more traditional tourist

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WORLD MARKET VIEW The global financial crisis plunged property markets into a downward spiral. Eight years on, Global Property Scene takes a look at how the international markets are developing.

London, UK • Median sales price: $1,224,222* • Average price per sqft: $1,401

Note - Figures correct as of stated dates: *November 2016

Los Angeles, USA • Median sales price: $631,612* • Average price per sqft: $987

Mexico City, Mexico

New York, USA

• Median sales price: $83,440* • Average price per sqft: $635

• Median sales price: $1,314,919* • Average price per sqft: $1,869

Most populated cities in the world: (Correct as of November 2016)

Sao Paulo, Brazil

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Moscow : 12,197,596

Mumbai : 12,442,373

Guangzhou : 13,080,500

Tokyo : 13,513,734

Istanbul : 14,160,467

Tianjin : 15,200,000

Lagos : 16,060,303

Beijing : 21,516,000

Karachi : 23,500,000

Shanghai : 24,256,800

• Median sales price: $217,777* • Average price per sqft: $284

Cape Town, South Africa • Median sales price: $76,570* • Average price per sqft: $229

Singapore Moscow, Russia • Median sales price: $395,120* • Average price per sqft: $889

Dubai, UAE • Median sales price: $299,967* • Average price per sqft: $593

• Median sales price: $1,194,148* • Average price per sqft: $1,993

Sydney, Australia • Median sales price: $641,121* • Average price per sqft: $993

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WHAT’S THE ALTERNATIVE? Bitcoin

Words : Michael Smith | View : Andrei Kuzmik

We as investors are always looking for the next best investment. We all want to board the train at the right time to maximise the outcome. For example, not so long ago it seemed the Dubai property market could do no wrong. So many people backed the booming construction happening across the golden emirate, never expecting the prices and conditions to falter. Unsurprisingly, they did and suddenly there was a backlog of stock either half finished, or off-plan waiting for the green light. A lot of this could be contributed to the global economic downturn, but I think there is something more significant to its undoing.

understand, and many felt their investments stood unsecure from the axe of local government. With the markets drying up it proved an easy decision to pull out and the prices ground to a halt.

Dubai, a very young country, experienced the boom of oil money and decide it needed to catch up. The decision was made to build a city to rival even the world’s greatest, in truly difficult conditions under very tight time scales. As the buildings were flying up, long-term planning issues began to appear. To alleviate these issues relatively new projects were removed to make way for a whole string of new development. Highways were widened, waterways were created and people were moved on. All this created doubt and confusion; people struggle to trust what they don’t

What is Bitcoin?

A plan needed to be made clear from the beginning, and once decided it could not be altered. This creates trust and understanding, probably the two most important elements to investing in something new.

All of which brings us to the next big thing, Bitcoin.

Introduced on 31st of October 2008 to a cryptography mailing list and released as open-source software in 2009, Bitcoin is a cryptocurrency and payment system which can be used to pay for almost anything. The system is peer-to-peer, and transactions take place between users directly without an intermediary. If you conduct a transaction with another user the record is stored on a public distributed ledger called the blockchain, which

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uses bitcoin as its unit of account. In addition, international payments are easy and cheap because bitcoins are not tied to any country or subject to regulation.

can also receive the currency as transaction fees from users using the currency. It is understood that paying a fee can expedite the confirmation of a transaction on the blockchain.

With the system operating without a central repository or single administrator, the U.S. Treasury categorises bitcoin as a decentralised virtual currency. It is not the first but is certainly the most widely adopted, which in turn has boosted its initial value significantly.

Where do you store your currency?

Who issues the currency?

New currency is created in the form of rewards garnered by users offering their computing power to verify and record bitcoin transactions into the blockchain. The process is often referred to as mining, and successful miners are rewarded with transaction fees and newly created bitcoins.

Most individuals who use Bitcoins tend to have obtained them through currency exchanges, or using other services which can offer the currency in the form of change from a transaction. Some users mining Bitcoins

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The currency is generally stored in what’s known as a “digital wallet,” which exists either in the cloud or on a user’s computer. The wallet acts as a kind of virtual bank account that allows users to send or receive bitcoins, pay for goods or save their money.

How is the currency performing?

Before we get into the current rates, let me take you through a brief history of the currency’s performance to today’s outlook.

It all began back in 2009, when Sathosi Nakamoto outlined the technology designed to enable Bitcoin. Despite the incredible genius

behind the maths generating Bitcoin, it was some time before anyone got behind the currency. At the start of 2011 a few early adopters began to see some traction, triggering the growth of the currency.

This confidence attracted more and more users, which helped evolve the market. More people and small business began to see the benefits of this new open-source currency. At the time of its inception, many had lost any real confidence in the banks and global markets. People were all feeling the sting of the global economic downturn. This new open-source currency struck a chord with many, as it stood as a symbol against the established currencies. This collective confidence helped the currency snowball, giving it real value. It’s this value that got the speculators talking.

By spring of 2013 the price spiked as a result of the financial crisis occurring in Cyprus. It’s at this point the currency broke free of its growth phase and became a household name; Bitcoin was all over the news.

This downpour of interest sent the currency’s users into a frenzy, with

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bold statements like “this currency is going to change the world, it will overthrow all the bureaucracy and government plaguing the modern world, bring an end to world hunger and end all global conflict.”

It’s not surprising these users felt so strongly about the currency. By the end of 2013 many of the early adopters had become multi-millionaires, and had to do little but watch as their fortunes continued to grow off the back of strong demand. Satoshi Nakamoto too had now become a billionaire. It’s incredible to think that at this point just one Bitcoin had the same market value as an ounce of gold.

As you can imagine this process could not carry on forever, and indeed it didn’t. The currency began to meet its first real challenges when arguably the most important element of currency was brought into question, security. There was a string of high-profile thefts from users “digital wallets”, causing many to fear the safety of their currency. There was also a whole host of scams and public bankruptcies that damaged the currency further, causing a large portion of users to pull out. While the values remained relatively high, prices plummeted. At the time

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Bitcoin was coming under heavy criticism from global governments who argued that up to 85% of transactions conducted through Bitcoin were drug purchases. The anonymity of the currency proved very attractive to the black market.

Fast-forward to now and with interest fading back to the faithful few and the currency reaching affordable levels, it seems Bitcoin could now be ready for a resurgence. Much of the criminal elements have been flushed away, and many of the previous mistakes have been overcome. It’s this second wave of investment that could see the currency reach mainstream adoption. Many Bitcoin speculators argue now could be the time to invest, but how should you approach the market?

Learn the basics There are three ways to receive Bitcoins: income, buy or mine. It’s probably not advisable to mine them as the process is incredibly complicated, and as you can imagine there are vast organisations tackling the process 24 hours a day.

We will start with buying them. First off you will need a wallet to store your new currency. There are a few different places you can purchase one of these wallets (blockchain.info/coinbase.com) and the process is very straight-forward. You simply enter your email and create a password and you’re ready to go. Once you have access through your wallet address you can deposit some normal currency in the account to purchase some Bitcoins. Once you have confirmation you’ve received your new currency you can use it online for purchases and in shops that accept the currency. Your wallet address allows you to be paid directly, similar to an account number and sort code.

Start small Now you understand the basics you’re ready to invest. The market has only recently begun to see some stability so I’d advise against investing too much. Most importantly you need to get comfortable using it. It’s possible to conduct most day to day transactions in Bitcoins so I’d build up a routine and try to speak to other Bitcoiners, as the community is full of people happy to help the uninitiated. By taking these small steps you too could in time earn a good return from Bitcoins.

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Q&A It’s time for GPS to answer some of our readers most pressing questions Words : Samantha Jones

Q.

Q.

There has been a lot of political turmoil recently in the UK which has affected the value of the pound. Particularly in reference to Brexit, do you think that this unrest will seep into other countries in Europe and affect their currencies as well?

I am looking to buy my first investment property in the UK and have just been informed that I need to pay stamp duty on the property.

What is this for and why do I need to pay it?

A.

A. No one, not even the experts, can anticipate how housing markets will be affected by political factors. Yes there has been a lot of uncertainty lately amongst supposed ‘strong’ economies, but whilst this has caused individual currencies to fluctuate, the knock-on effect to housing markets has been mild.

Take the UK for example: whilst sterling dropped to a 30-year low in the wake of the Brexit vote, the property market held its ground and, rather than crash like many feared it would, demand for buy-to-let property has actually continued in much the same vein as it did pre-Brexit. In fact, two months after the referendum, the Halifax banking group reported that annual house price growth stood unchanged at 8.7%.

Five months on, whilst the pound is indeed still weaker than it was prior to the referendum, the demand for rental property is higher than ever before.

A continued lack of supply in the housing market, coupled with first-time buyers struggling to save the deposit for their first home, has meant that buy-to-let investors are seeing minimal to no void periods and increasing rents. If your properties in the UK are currently netting a solid yield, then there are no indications that this will change anytime soon.

Whether or not the rest of Europe will hold their own referendums is yet to be seen, meaning that the decision on whether you sell you other properties is something that you will have to weigh up on a case-by-case basis.

Stamp Duty Land Tax (SDLT)* is a tax imposed by the UK Government that is payable on any property bought over a certain price in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. The threshold for residential properties is currently set at £125,000 and non-residential land and properties have a threshold of £150,000.

The amount of SDLT you pay is wholly dependent on the sale price of the property.

Table 1 Property or lease premium or transfer value Up to £125,000 The next £125,000 (the next portion from £125,000 to £250,000) The next £675,000 (the next portion from £250,000 to £925,000) The next £575,000 (the next portion from £925,000 to £1.5million) The remaining amount (the portion above £1.5million)

SDLT rate 0 2% 5% 10% 12%

If you have purchased your property to rent out, so have bought a leasehold as opposed to a freehold, then you will pay SDLT using the rates in table 1 on the purchase price of the lease, also known as the lease premium.

If the total rent over the life of the lease (known as the ‘net present value’) is more than £125,000, you also pay SDLT of 1% on the portion over £125,000 – unless you buy an existing (assigned) lease.

Whilst you state that this is your first investment property, you do not mention if you already own another property elsewhere. If you do, then you will usually have to pay 3% on top of the normal SDLT rates, if buying a new residential property means that you’ll own more than one.

If you have any queries on taxation, we would recommend that you visit the official UK government website www.gov.uk/stamp-duty-land-tax.

*These questions and answers are provided for general information only and may not be completely accurate in every circumstance.

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ASK THE EXPERT

Q.

Q.

What kind of people attend the Property Investor and Homebuyer show?

Have you noticed any changes in investor appetite, post-Brexit?

A. Our show attracts all kinds of landlords, from first-time landlords to seasoned portfolio investors with in excess of 20 properties. That said, the average attendee at the Property Investor Show currently holds a portfolio of between 4 and 5 buy-to-let properties, with approximately 30 per cent holding international properties as part of their portfolio.

The show is designed to appeal to everyone, with a timetable of seminars throughout the two days aiming to cover a broad range of topics that will be relevant to all stages of interest.

Q. What can attendees expect to gain from attending a property exhibition?

A. There are many things that can be gained from a property exhibition—it gives landlords and prospective investors the chance to meet with a selection of experts in various fields, as well as the chance to network with other like-minded investors. Our exhibition offers investors the opportunity to fulfil all their investment needs under one roof, often with access to exclusive offers not available anywhere else.

Q. What kind of footfall do you expect from the Property Investor Show every year?

A.

A. As the event organiser we are one step removed from most investors.

However the general feedback from our regular exhibitors was that June’s UK Referendum result triggered a month or so of inactivity, but that since August/September investor activity has been returning to ‘normal’ levels – certainly where UK property is concerned.

The only reported exception to that would be from a selection of our clients who specialise in international property and advised the recent decline in the strength of Sterling compared to most major currencies has caused some potential buyers to adopt a “wait and see” approach—a common response to changing exchange rates.

Q. How long have your shows been running for, and have you seen any trends over this time?

A. The Homebuyer Brand was launched in 1988 and Property Investor in 2002. The shows have been running in their current form since 2004.

These dates coincide with the start of the UK’s buy-to-let boom and UK property has benefitted from over a decade of uninterrupted popularity.

Clearly, supply and demand has underpinned this behaviour, supported

by NET rental yields offering a more attractive return than other investment alternatives.

Post the 2007/08 global recession, international property remains a mixed bag. Take Africa as an example. Before 2011 our shows regularly attracted healthy participation from developing locations in North Africa – with Egypt and Morocco in the vanguard. That area of business was hit badly by the Arab Spring of 2011 – and almost 6 years on shows little sign of recovery. In contrast, during the last 2-3 years we have seen increasing levels of representation from West Africa – particularly Nigeria and Ghana.

As the UK’s premier property investment and landlord event, attendees and exhibitor numbers have been growing year-on-year for both the April and October shows. 2016 was a great year for the Property Investor Show, with both shows at London ExCeL attracting over 5,000 attendees over the four days.

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SHOULD I MOVE TO MANCHESTER? Words : Alex Timperley | View : Callum Whiteley

Manchester is the UK’s second city and one of the best places in the country to live. It is a thoroughly modern city built on industrial foundations and fuelled by young people who make up a huge chunk of the population.

Manchester is an international city renowned throughout the world, but one which still retains a very localised atmosphere. It mostly does its own thing without much care for what London or the rest of the country is thinking – it is a trailblazing city.

clearly seen in the city to this day. The city centre is full of beautiful old red brick factories which give the city a look and feel unlike anywhere else, as well as the sort of weight which only comes with history. The Revolution also shaped the outer edges of Manchester and its suburbs. Areas like Whalley Range to the south are dominated by giant detached houses originally built for richer residents who moved away from the grime and industry of the city centre looking for a more peaceful lifestyle.

Over the years, since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, the factory furnaces have gone cold and the spinning jenny cotton weaving machines The modern world looks the way it does thanks to the Industrial have ceased their chattering, but Manchester has been a home to other Revolution. Every skyscraper, every suspension bridge, every train, car and revolutions in the time since. aeroplane – all of us live in the society we do thanks to the little world of labour which sprang up in eighteenth century Britain. Technological and Science has been one of the city’s strongpoints for many years. John scientific advances redefined what was possible and the coal and iron Dalton pioneered modern atomic theory in Manchester back in the early which flowed out from under the hills was burned and beaten into nineteenth century, laying the groundwork for all of modern chemistry and products which would end up changing the world. physics. Ernest Rutherford would later go on to continue this legacy by splitting the atom and changing the world. Manchester was where James Manchester was the crucible of this Revolution and its legacy can be Prescott Joule discovered the first law of thermodynamics and where Tom

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Beetham Tower, Manchester

Kilburn and his team made the first stored-program computer and the first transistorised computer. Most recently Manchester has seen the invention of graphene, supposedly set to be one of the defining materials of the future.

Today, Manchester is a major centre of the so called ‘fourth industrial revolution’ – the blurring of the lines between the physical, digital and biological spheres. The high-tech industries present in the city today are actively working to integrate technology with biological systems to improve the lives of people around the world. A particularly interesting example of this is the nascent E-textiles industry which covers everything from coats which can regulate body temperature to bandages which can monitor muscle injuries. The Museum of Science and Industry in the city centre showcases Manchester’s many technological and engineering accomplishments and is an essential visit for anyone moving to the city.

Mankind cannot live on technology alone, however. We also need great revolutionary ideas and Manchester has proven to be fertile ground for philosophers and thinkers. The world’s first public library was opened in

Manchester in 1653 in order for people to expand their knowledge of the world just a few short years after the English Civil War where Manchester had joined the rest of the Parliamentarian forces in rejecting the divine right of monarchs to dictate the lives of ordinary people. Chetham’s Library would later be where Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels wrote their Communist Manifesto, a political pamphlet which asserted the rights of the workers to control their own destiny that was inspired by Manchester. The city has been a Chartist stronghold and the scene of the Peterloo Massacre, where the cavalry charged into a crowd of 80,000 people who were demanding democratic reform of Parliament, as well as the birthplace of the Women’s Social and Political Union which fought for women’s suffrage in the early twentieth century.

Today, Manchester is pioneering the idea of regional devolution, acting as the heart of the Northern Powerhouse project, and taking political power back from the central UK government in key areas such as healthcare, justice, housing and transport. There are few places which suit the idea of self-government better, as can be seen by a visit to the People’s History Museum where this city’s extraordinary, radical past is laid out on behalf of

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Etihad Stadium, Manchester

the people of Manchester.

It is fair to say that Manchester punches well above its weight with its contributions to the rest of the world. But to concentrate on industry, technology and revolutions only tells one part of the story of this most modern city.

Among many other things, Manchester is famous across the world as a sports city. The UK’s most recent Olympics campaign in Rio De Janeiro once again showcased the exceptional talent and skill of British Cycling who operate from their Manchester base, a legacy from the 2002 Commonwealth Games which put Britain back on the map as a place capable of hosting large sporting events. Another legacy of those Games is the City of Manchester Stadium which has since been taken over by Manchester City and renamed the Etihad Stadium, progressing from its origins as a multi-purpose sports venue to become a world class football ground and music venue. Manchester United also play near the city centre at their Old Trafford stadium which draws big crowds and is a renowned tourist destination.

Manchester also has a reputation as a musical city. Pop acts such as The

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Smiths, Joy Division, New Order and Chemical Brothers have had a massive influence on music from around the world, and Manchester is rightly proud of its outsized influence in musical history. The city also has a happy tradition of embracing the weird and wonderful with acts like John Cooper Clarke exporting Manchester’s unique sensibilities and do-it-yourself, rock and roll spirit to the rest of the world. Much like London, all touring bands will eventually reach Manchester and play in any of the city’s legendary venues from small, intimate places like Sound Control up to the 21,000 capacity Manchester Arena or the even larger Etihad Stadium.

Manchester has few equals in the UK as a place to have a good time. The city centre is packed full of bars, pubs and clubs which are a destination for people from miles around who travel into the city to take advantage of the great nightlife on offer. The restaurant scene is also incredibly diverse and innovative, with food from across the world being enjoyed by Mancunians. Visitors from as far afield as China, Argentina, Catalonia and India can find their local cuisine cooked to an extremely high standard in Manchester.

All of this is available without the cost of living being as unaffordable as it

is in London. Not only have house prices in Manchester so far declined to disappear into the stratosphere, the general cost of public transport, eating out, going to the pub and other distractions such as seeing live music is still affordable for the masses. The free art galleries and museums are just another bonus on top which contributes to Manchester having a social fabric other cities find it difficult to match.

With all this in mind, it is no surprise that so many of the approximately 100,000 students who attend universities across Manchester decide to stay in the city following graduation. This is a young city, as the exciting art and music scenes can attest to, and there is an interesting energy around a place which knows it is on the way up. In many ways, life in Manchester is the opposite of life in London; All the best bits of modern life without the stress, pessimism and extreme expense which comes with living in the capital.

Now is the perfect time to move to Manchester and live somewhere which has a bright future ahead of it.

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Specialists at providing buy-to-let properties to the private investor market, Knight Knox has a wide range of developments available across the UK. Working alongside a team of experienced developers, solicitors and agents allows Knight Knox to provide expert advice and guidance on a range of investments.

Over the next 27 pages you will see a selection of the investment opportunities available through Knight Knox.

+44(0)161 772 1370 www.knightknox.com The Best of UK Buy-to-Let

PALATINE GARDENS Sheffield PRICES FROM :

ÂŁ69,950 > Circa 5.77% predicted NET returns Quality fixtures and fittings Fully-furnished Great central location Within walking distance of local shops High rental demand in the area

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Palatine Gardens is located in Shalesmoor, a vibrant area of Sheffield which is only minutes from the city centre.

The development is close to the Supertram light rail network, via which residents can get around the city, and is also near to the city’s national rail station which allows convenient travel to cities as far apart as London, Manchester, Liverpool, Leeds, York and Newcastle. *furniture subject to an additional charge

NEW LAUNCH

X1 THE CAMPUS Salford PRICES FROM :

ÂŁ89,995 > Circa 6% predicted NET returns Built by experienced developer; X1 Close to excellent public transport links Close to local shops, bars and restaurants On-site gym Private student accommodation is a booming investment class

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X1 The Campus will consist of 271 student studio apartments split over two blocks and eight floors within the University of Salford Frederick Road Campus.

Salford plays host to everything which a modern student could possibly want from a university city – not just a fantastic university which is a leader in its field, but also a range of pubs, restaurants and shops in the local area.

X1 THE LANDMARK Salford PRICES FROM :

£128,000 > TBC NET rental returns Private communal facilities Beautiful balconies with dynamic city views Prime city centre location Within walking distance of local amenities Experienced management company in place

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The newest addition to the Manchester skyline, X1 The Landmark will provide 191 stunning apartments to the thriving Salford rental market.

Situated in a prime location between two thriving cities, X1 The Landmark will offer residents the best of both worlds—able to enjoy the picturesque waterfront destination found in Salford’s MediaCityUK, yet just a stone’s throw away from Manchester’s dynamic city centre.

NEW LAUNCH

THE TOWER AT X1 THE QUARTER Liverpool PRICES FROM :

ÂŁ89,995 > Circa 5% NET rental returns Highly sought-after location Lettings and management company in place Private communal facilities Great transport links and close to shopping Built by experienced developer

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The Tower is the fifth and final phase of X1 The Quarter, X1’s award-winning development near the beautiful Liverpool waterfront, with all previous phases sold out and fully tenanted.

The success of the previous phases demonstrates the huge demand for prime residential accommodation in Liverpool, and The Tower at X1 The Quarter is sure to prove popular with both investors and future tenants.

NEW LAUNCH

HERRESHOFF APARTMENTS AT FORTIS QUAY Salford Quays PRICES FROM :

ÂŁ124,995 > Circa 6% predicted NET returns Local rental market is booming Luxury apartments close to Manchester Great transport links Built by an experienced developer On-site lettings and management company

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The Herreshoff Apartments make up Phase 1 of the landmark Fortis Quay development.

These 54 stunning apartments are sure to be a hit with the huge number of young professionals who live and work in MediaCityUK, Europe’s leading technology, media and telecommunications hub and a beautiful recreation area. In addition to the immediate local area, the sights and amenities of Manchester city centre are only a short journey away which is a big draw for tenants.

NEW LAUNCH

SILKHOUSE COURT Liverpool PRICES FROM :

ÂŁ99,995 > Circa 5.9% predicted NET returns Unbeatable city centre location Liverpool rental market is booming Excellent city centre location Close to regional and national transport links Fully let and managed by an experienced letting agent

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Silkhouse Court provides the ultimate modern living experience. Each apartment comes complete with beautiful, top-of-the-range furnishing and fixtures, carefully selected by the development team to suit the dwellings.

Residents will be provided with a number of convenient on-site amenities. The private gymnasium on the Ground Floor is open for all residents, and the concierge service is there to make modern living simpler for the busy young professional.

X1 THE GATEWAY Salford Quays PRICES FROM :

ÂŁ100,000 > Circa 6% predicted NET returns Situated in a prime residential area Within easy walking distance of MediaCityUK Let and managed by X1 Lettings Great on-site facilities Waterfront views

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With a sleek, modern design, a luxurious finish and set in a desirable location; this new residential development raises the bar when it comes to providing future tenants with a first class cosmopolitan living experience.

Situated in the heart of the Quays, this prime residential development brings a mixture of 191 stunning 1, 2 and 3 bedroom apartments to market.

X1 MEDIA CITY TOWER 3 Salford Quays PRICES FROM :

£114,995 > Circa 6% predicted NET returns Studios, 1, 2-bedroom apartments Lettings and management company in place Private communal facilities Great transport links and close to shopping Most exclusive development outside of London

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The penultimate tower in X1 Media City will follow in the footsteps of its predecessors, offering high-end residential living in a highly sought-after area.

This development’s stunning glass-fronted exterior perfectly epitomises the luxury within, and is just a stone’s throw away from the iconic MediaCityUK site on the picturesque Salford Quays waterfront.

LAST APARTMENT S REMAINING

X1 AIRE Leeds PRICES FROM :

ÂŁ105,000 > 6% NET rental returns 1 and 2-bedroom apartments Lettings and management company in place Private communal facilities State-of-the-art apartments Prime location in the heart of Leeds

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X1 Aire is Knight Knox’s newest development in the heart of the thriving city of Leeds. This development is set to provide state-of-the-art living for a vastly undersupplied Leeds rental market, providing a stunning array of apartments ranging from bespoke studios to stunning penthouses.

X1 Aire is set to take boutique city centre living to the next level, providing state-of-the-art apartments to the private rental market.

NOW SOLD OUT

IN CONSTRUCTION

ADELPHI WHARF PHASE 3 Salford PRICES FROM :

£119,995 > Circa 6% predicted NET returns Excellent local infrastrucutre 10 minutes walk to central Manchester Experienced managing agent Great transport links and close to shopping Chronic undersupply of housing in Manchester and Salford

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The eagerly anticipated third phase of Knight Knox’s incredibly successful Adelphi Wharf project has arrived.

Located in one of the UK’s buy-to-let property hotspots, Greater Manchester’s popular region of Salford, Adelphi Wharf Phase 3 follows on from the two previous sold out phases. Investors were understandably enamoured with the development’s attractive modern apartments, superb location and the area’s ever-growing rental demand.

NOW SOLD OUT

SPECTRUM Manchester PRICES FROM :

ÂŁ172,950 > Circa 5.5% NET rental returns Completed and tenanted development Private landscaped gardens Great central location Built by experienced developer High quality fixtures and fittings

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Spectrum delivers the best of both worlds, combining chic, urban living with the tranquility of private landscaped gardens.

The studio, one, two and three-bedroom apartments are finished to the highest specification, with floor-to-ceiling windows and full-length balconies in most apartments.

Light floods into the living space and views across the city are a constant reminder of how close you are to everything you could want.

NOW SOLD OUT

THE COURTYARD AT X1 THE QUARTER Liverpool PRICES FROM :

ÂŁ89,950 > 6% NET rental returns Finance options available Experienced management company in place Proven rental demand 5 minute walk to Liverpool ONE Opposite Liverpool Marina

Built by an experienced developer in the residential buy-to-let market, The Courtyard at X1 The Quarter presents a unique concept in luxury living for the residents of Liverpool.

Completed in September 2014, the development contains 77 modern 1, 2 and 3 bed apartments, in addition to 3 bed townhouses. Offered at an extremely competitive purchase price and with virtually no maintenance required due to the new-build status of the development.

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BRIDGEWATER GATE Manchester PRICES FROM :

ÂŁ114,995 > Circa 6% predicted NET returns Predicted NET rental yields of 6% Lettings and management company in place Private communal facilities Built by an experienced developer Great transport links and close to shopping amenities

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Bridgewater Gate is enviably located on the edge of Manchester city centre in the thriving area of Castlefield.

This luxurious development will have all the advantages of being a short walk away from the local parks and independent shops of suburbia, but also the vibrant bars and restaurants of the city.

It also sits within walking distance of MediaCityUK, the new home of the BBC.

NOW SOLD OUT

IN CONSTRUCTION

NOW SOLD OUT

MULBERRY PLACE Salford PRICES FROM :

£109,000 > Circa 6% predicted NET returns Highly sought-after location Lettings and management company in place Close to Salford and Manchester City Centres Excellent local transport links Salford named ‘UK Buy-to-Let Hotspot’ 2014 and 2015

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Located in the heart of Salford, Mulberry Place brings 38 chic apartments to the city’s thriving buy-to-let market in the form of spacious one and two bedroom apartments.

Residents of Mulberry Place will also benefit from excellent on-site facilities such as a beautifully landscaped communal courtyard, bicycle storage and off-street car parking spaces provided for selected apartments. Some apartments will also enjoy the benefit of having their own balcony.

NOW SOLD OUT

THE TERRACE AT X1 THE QUARTER Liverpool PRICES FROM :

ÂŁ109,950 > 6% NET rental returns Assured 6% rental income for 5 years Fully managed and let by X1 lettings Great central location High-end fixtures and fittings Built by experienced developer

The Terrace is the fourth phase of the highly successful X1 The Quarter development (Phase 1 The Gallery and Phase 2 The Courtyard are fully tenanted with Phase 3 The Studios in construction).

This development is set to be a 101-unit new-build in the vastly popular city of Liverpool, launched as a direct response to the incredible demand for prime residential apartments in the region, shown by the incredible success of the previous phases.

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NOW SOLD OUT

BELLS COURT Sheffield PRICES FROM :

ÂŁ69,995 > 7% NET rental returns Assured 7% rental income for 1 year Fully-furnished Excellent city centre location Luxury studio apartments High rental demand in Sheffield

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A brand-new residential project located in the heart of the highly popular student city of Sheffield. It supplies the burgeoning buy-to-let market in Sheffield with a total of 29 state-of-the-art studios apartments.

Bells Court provides a mix of luxury studio apartments, perfect for both students and young professionals alike.

Demand is high for prime accommodation in Sheffield, with its rising house prices and thriving rental market.

LOOKING FOR PROPERTY TO BUY? BE SURE TO VISIT THE

The UK’s largest and longest running property investment event is presented at ExCeL London every April and October.

The major names in UK and international property will be out in force with plenty of ‘off-market’ bargain deals and show exclusives to choose from.

E FREW

SHO Y ENTR

REGISTER ONLINE AT www.propertyinvestor.co.uk NOTE: Seminar booking opens approximately 6 weeks before show opening day

New-build buy-to-let opportunities Studios, 1, 2 & 3-bed apartments available Completed, in construction & sold out developments available In prime locations across Manchester, Liverpool and Leeds