Issue 17

GLOBAL

PROPERTY SCENE ISSUE NO. 017

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

This issue: How do we address business fraud and theft through hacking? | The rise of micro dwellings UAE, miles ahead of the rest of the world | Should I move to Eindhoven?

FOCUS ON : JAPAN

GPS ATTENDS : SINGAPORE YACHT SHOW

IS GREECE EUROPE’S BEST OPPORTUNITY?

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INSIDE Features

18 The rise of microdwellings

47 UAE, leaps and bounds ahead

56 The growing risk from hackers

64 Are smart supermarkets the next big thing?

With the world experiencing unprecedented urban growth in recent decades, many countries are feeling the strain of low urban housing supplies. By 2050, the figure is predicted to grow to 6.33 billion, which equates to 66% of the forecasted global population of 9.6 billion.

The growth of the UAE seemingly came from nowhere. The BBC comments that the UAE “has grown from a quiet backwater to one of the Middle East’s most important economic centres”, which is an incredible feat for a country whose main city of Abu Dhabi only constructed its first paved road in 1961.

Whilst overtly complicated hacking scandals do occur, the technology available to multinational businesses and governments alike often mean that the sheer manpower and time required to circumnavigate their systems has made the endeavour ineffective.

Amazon has turned the oft-tiresome chore of grocery shopping on its head with its newest Seattle-based grocery shop—Amazon Go—the first store of its kind which uses automation as part of the shopping experience.

Regular Articles

Listings (sponsored)

09 Market in Focus: Japan

90 UK

INVESTING IN GREECE

The island nation of Japan is a truly timeless place where ancient traditions are fused with modern ideals.

86 Should I move to Edinburgh?

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Eindhoven is the fifth-largest city in the Netherlands and can be found in the province of North Brabant, south of Amsterdam and north of Belgium.

The home of the Industrial Revolution, the UK has long been established as a major commercial centre, benefitting 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 017 GLOBAL

PROPERTY SCENE ISSUE NO. 017

EDITOR’S NOTE

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

This issue: How do we address business fraud and theft through hacking? | The rise of micro dwellings UAE, miles ahead of the rest of the world | Should I move to Eindhoven?

FOCUS ON : JAPAN

GPS ATTENDS : SINGAPORE YACHT SHOW

IS GREECE EUROPE’S BEST OPPORTUNITY?

It seems property prices in London have started to show signs of weakness, as investor sentiment begins to wane. With the capital a less impressive return on investment, more buy-to-let landlords look to the north for a better return. With the pound slowly recovering, where could Europe’s next best investment opportunity be?

Greece is a country which in recent memory has experienced some of the most difficult financial conditions seen anywhere in Europe. Now, in 2017, the outlook is brighter, with overseas investment beginning to return. With an estimated 28 million visitors expected this year, we look at why now could be the perfect time to invest.

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Cover image by Dawid Zawiła

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, Andrea Wong, Suzanne Todd, Callum Whiteley, John Power, Martin Copeland, Michael Vickers, Mark Williams Commercial Knight Knox, X1, Fortis Developments, Forshaw Land & Property Group, INTUS Lettings, Gold Key Media, Shutterstock, Unsplash, Property Investor, Crossbow Investments CODA Studios Ltd, Tatton Investment Management

With the world experiencing unprecedented urban growth, many countries are feeling the strain of low urban housing supplies. With so little developable space in many large cities, landlords continue to divide up their properties in a bid to maximise the use of the available space. But is this space liveable? In this edition of GPS, we look at the rise of micro-dwellings and how good design can deliver a positive living space.

The growth of the UAE seemingly came from nowhere. The BBC comments that the UAE “has grown from a quiet backwater to one of the Middle East’s most important economic centres”, which is an incredible feat for a country whose main city of Abu Dhabi only constructed its first paved road in 1961. With the Emirates pushing onto even greater heights, we analyse just how far ahead the UAE is compared to its international rivals.

The international community is coming under increasing pressure to deal with the growing number of hackers crippling local businesses and infrastructure. With the NHS experiencing a series of intrusions in its systems, it begs the question: just how exposed are we? In this edition we discuss what is being done to tackle this chronic issue.

And finally, GPS visits the Singapore Yacht Show to look at some of the most elaborate floating homes available on the open market today.

That’s it for now, we hope you enjoy edition 17.

Editor-in-chief Michael Smith

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EMPIRE 2.0 ...

Will Leyland

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The situation is of huge importance; here you sit as the government that has been handed the reigns after Brexit, the biggest political bombshell to hit the country for nearly 70 years. Not since the end of World War II has the UK had to strike a more complicated, tense and tentative trade deal with its international colleagues. The legislation and trade deals that need to be renegotiated are of such a magnitude that some experts have wondered whether it could take up to 20 years to conclude.

As you divorce your largest trading partner by some margin, common sense may tell you that your best approach would be one of dignity, reconciliation and friendship-but sadly, a former party leader and senior Conservative peer decided to tell national news that the UK is spoiling for a war with Spain, and the biggest-selling newspaper in the land printed one of the crassest front pages they’ve ever achieved, insulting our international partners.

Half of the country seems utterly intent on not just burning our most reliable trade bridge, but pouring a tanker of petrol on it and setting it on fire.

This, it seems, is the situation facing a government which desperately requires a reliable and progressive industrial strategy to keep our place as a leading world economy. In a perfect demonstration of this need for sensitivity, for a country which once ruled half of the globe, the government named this plan ‘Empire 2.0’. If you shuddered at the mere sight of that, then you are not alone-but what does it actually look like and what is it likely to mean?

What is Empire 2.0?

‘Empire 2.0’ is not only a staggeringly insensitive name, it is apparently the title of the government’s trade plans for the UK after it has completed its divorce from the European Union, which is expected some time in 2019.

The phrase was allegedly coined by advisors in Whitehall when coming up with a strategy to form new and progressive trade deals with the Commonwealth.

Countries such as India, Canada, South Africa and other exciting emerging markets have been earmarked as the place to focus our attention. With that, you would have to assume that the advisors didn’t think about the language they were using to describe countries once exploited by the UK government.

Who does it involve?

Generally speaking, the Commonwealth itself has 52 members with a combined population of 2 billion and a GDP of US$14.6tr. For comparison, the EU has 28 (soon to be 27) member countries with a combined population of US$500m and a GDP of US$20tr.

That being said, the big hitters thought to be involved in the plans are India, South Africa, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. Those countries combined, it is thought, could go some way to replacing the trade potentially lost by leaving the EU. How have they reacted?

Not very well, to be honest. African and Indian journalists and bloggers have been quite roundly ridiculing the idea. Worse though, the phrase emerged when the formidable Indian diplomat turned historian Shashi Tharoor was in the UK, promoting his new book about, yes, Britain’s colonial exploitation of India. Outspoken as ever, Tharoor was in no doubt that the idea of Empire 2.0 would go down in India “like a lead balloon”. The Guardian summed it up quite well when they wrote: “Some may well be up for a better trade deal or more freedom of movement, but they don’t want to be part of Empire 2.0, any more than most of them wanted to be part of Empire 1.0.”

Australia, the US and New Zealand have made positive noises about possible trade deals with the UK, but have done no more than that. There have been absolutely no indication that there would be any rush to do a trade deal with the UK, whilst most still work with the EU. Perhaps most laughably though, most have said that any trade deal struck with the UK would almost certainly have to involve a freedom of movement agreement, meaning that workers can freely move in and out of the UK as they wish and vice versa.

Considering one of the central issues of the ‘Out’ campaign was that Britain could control its borders, perhaps the harsh reality of exactly what it means to have a co-operative relationship is biting.

Most seem agreed that the government’s current policy of pretending it’s still the late 19th century is not only ridiculous but deeply damaging to a future that could well be successful outside of the EU. Trading with a Commonwealth that has a combined annual wealth of US$14tr isn’t a bad idea, but insulting them with patronising and deeply insensitive language certainly is.

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MARKET IN FOCUS Japan

Words : Andrea Wong | View : Kanuman

The island nation of Japan is a truly timeless place where ancient traditions are fused with modern ideals, creating a society which blurs the boundaries between the East and West. Whilst it is home to some of the most cutting-edge technology and futuristic fashions, it is also a place packed full of fascinating world-class historical sites and stunning landscapes. Since their defeat in World War II, Japan’s economy has recovered, and has since delivered a nation which is bursting with inspiration.

At Global Property Scene, we have long been in awe of Japan’s diverse culture and traditions, as well as the fascinating history behind it.

Pinpointing one place in Japan’s colourful history when discussing Japan’s success would be difficult, but in terms of modern success, one significant period does springs to mind: the so-called Economic Miracle.

The Economic Miracle relates to the historical period in which Japan experienced 9% year on year growth post-World War II, all the way until the end of the Cold War. The nation rapidly recovered from the devastating end to World War II and became the second-largest economy behind the United States by the 1960s. However, this does not mean that all was plain sailing. The loss of World War II following the deployment of the atom bomb marked some of the darkest days in Japan’s history, and even today the effects are still being felt.

The atomic bomb Described as an ‘intense ball of fire’, the first atomic blast hit Hiroshima on August 6th, 1945, killing approximately 140,000 people by the end of the year out of the 350,000 living in the city. Many people died instantly from the heat of the blast (which reached an estimated 7,000 degrees Celsius), whilst others were crushed beneath collapsed buildings or flying debris.

From this, approximately 90% of the Japanese city of Hiroshima was completely wiped out, as well as a large proportion of the population.

Only three days later America dropped another bomb over Nagasaki, giving Japan no choice but to surrender. In addition to the traumatic events, the nation had lost the region of Manchuria to the Soviet invasion, and Taiwan was under the control of the Republic of China.

However, Japan rose from the ashes of World War II. Within a few decades the economy was experiencing accelerating growth, and the nation became a global powerhouse. The success of this brought about huge debate: was the economic boom simply a ‘miracle’, or should Japan be given full credit for this incredible turnaround?

In the late 1980s, the archipelagic nation continued to thrive and was enjoying inflated real estate and stock market prices. However, by 1990, these abruptly collapsed and Japan’s asset bubble burst. This led to long decades of chronic deflation and low growth, a period which became

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Kiyomizu-dera temple in Kyoto, Japan

known as the ‘Lost Decade’. Whilst there were continuous efforts by the government to revive the economy through fiscal and economic stimulus measures, they were largely ineffective, and some were even damaging to the economy.

In 1997, the government’s decision to increase consumption tax from 3% to 5% proved to be detrimental, as it led to the economy plunging into deep recession almost immediately after. One of the main purposes was to balance the budget and to cover the rising costs of social welfare for the ageing population. With one of the lowest birth rates in the world and the highest ratio of elderly people, it was crucial for the government to come up with a well-executed plan. In this case, it took a turn for the worse.

Abenomics Confidence appears to have been regained in modern Japan, with the current Prime Minister Shinzo Abe returning to the helm in 2012 in a landslide victory after a short spell in office during 2006-2007. This time round, he returned to office with an economic policy package called ‘Abenomics’ which concentrated efforts on reigniting the struggling Japanese

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economy. He focussed on the three arrows of monetary easing, fiscal stimulus and structural reforms, whilst tackling various issues such as the lack of women in the workforce and taxes.

The effectiveness of Abenomics has been heavily disputed by economists, many considering it a failure having not delivered on its initial promises despite the huge improvements in some areas. In truth, Abenomics has not lived up to its hype, even after two decades of economic stagnation, Mr Abe has achieved a great deal by defeating core deflation excluding energy prices, increasing companies’ profits, introducing gentle reforms and, most notably, expanding employment.

Abe’s sincere commitment to Abenomics is irrefutable, even if it was partly to buy popularity. It seems that his policies are continously impressing the Japanese people, as he has been able to secure consecutive electoral victories over the years.

Employment Japan is now boasting a 22 year low of 2.8% unemployment, which reiterates how tight Japan’s labour market is. In the last decade or so, employ-

ment opportunities have shifted more towards part-time roles, and many economists are blaming weak consumer demand on this fact. Although it is still too early to say whether the trend will completely reverse, the latest figures are looking positive, with the number of regular jobs growing by 260,000 in March from a year ago, while part-time, temporary and contract jobs increased by 170,000. Shifting back to permanent hiring could give consumer spending a much-needed push.

Increasing the number of women in the workforce has been at the heart of Abe’s plans, in the hope of increasing Japan’s growth potential and tackling the shrinking workforce. Although it is positive news that Japan are supporting workforce growth in the nation, economists are sceptical about how effectively it has been implemented thus far, as Japanese women make up a huge proportion of the non-regular jobs in Japan and hold fewer advanced-level positions than female workers in other countries. Regardless of this, the government has been successful in adding around one million women to the workforce in Japan.

The aim of ‘womenomics’ was to increase the proportion of women in managerial positions up to 30% by 2020, although this number has been revised down since. In addition, the policy was to support women in

returning to work after giving birth by up to 55%, but with a lack of child support, it has been a huge challenge for Mr Abe’s government.

Although Abe is admired for his focus on female empowerment, Japanese society is seeing very little progress in terms of gender equality as women are still facing social constraints and expectations, which this has proven to be a major obstacle in ‘womenomics’. With a decreasing labour force, could we see progress in gender equality pick up speed in both society and the workplace?

Ageing population According to new figures, it is predicted that by 2065 Japan’s population will shrink by a third, emphasising the nation’s demographic crisis. As the workforce is shrinking, pension demand is soaring. The government has reacted and is looking to gradually raise the starting age at which people can receive pension payments from 60 to 65 years old. This has worried many young Japanese people today, who are sceptical about whether the pension system will take care of them when they reach old age.

Mr Abe has reassured Japan on the shrinking workforce, saying that it

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could be the incentive to boost productivity through innovations such as robots, Artificial Intelligence and wireless sensors. Introducing industrial robots will revise the conventional human-based way of manufacturing.

A Japanese company named Fukoku Mutual Life Insurance is already making changes to its workforce, with plans to make 34 employees redundant and replace them with Artificial Intelligence in the form of IBM’s Watson Explorer AI. The firm believes that replacing human workers with AI machines will allow them to increase productivity by 30%, as they will not need to take breaks, sleep or maternity leave.

Markets Whilst many economists have claimed that Abenomics has become too reliant on the weakening of the Yen to boost economic growth, last year Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said that it would be the driving force behind companies increasing wages and investment by boosting their profits.

Since 2013, unprecedented monetary easing by the Bank of Japan has devalued the Yen against other major currencies, driving up the profits of large businesses in Japan to record levels by inflating their earning in Yen terms, resulting in soaring share prices in the Tokyo market. Governor Haruhiko Kuroda said recently that further Yen decline could ease the pressure off the central bank and help to achieve the 2% inflation goal set

by Abe’s government more quickly.

The depreciation of the Yen and infrastructural reforms have also helped to ignite Japan’s property market. Since the introduction of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s reflationary policies, real estate prices have seen robust growth, with lower property taxes and deregulation in urban development.

Compared to other Asian countries such as Hong Kong and Singapore, residential property is still valued in Japan. It has captured the attention of wealthy Chinese investors, who have largely contributed to the rising market price. Residential property has continued to rise in the major cities, with the number of existing condominiums sold in Tokyo rising by 5.4% from the same period last year.

The future of Japan Despite having two decades of zero growth, Japan is still managing to hold onto its title as the third-largest economy by GDP. In four consecutive quarters, the economy has seen a rise in growth, which the nation has not experienced in three years. In 2016, the Japanese economy grew 1%, whilst in the previous year there was a growth level of 1.2%, which suggests that Abenomics is showing slow but steady progress.

According to the Financial Times, although the Japanese industry is growing steadily, confidence remains lower than it was in the early days of Abenomics, emphasising just how much Japan still has to do to escape decades of on-and-off deflation.

Although Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has tried to stimulate economic revival, optimism amongst Japanese youngsters is hard to find. With one of the most rapidly growing elderly populations in the world, and a public debt burden ranked amongst the world’s biggest, economists are sceptical about whether Japan will ever reclaim the glories of the past.

Many young Japanese people are concerned over whether the nation’s pension system will be able to take care of them. Stagnant salaries are delaying marriage, family planning and home-buying. However, Abe is making great strides in boosting the workforce by bringing more women in employment, whilst the Bank of Japan is hoping that shortages of labour will eventually increase wages and consumption, pushing up prices towards its 2% objective.

The outlook for the future is otherwise positive, with forecasted growth for 2017 at 0.6%. Tourist consumption is expected to increase with the rising visitor arrivals, already a key performer in the first quarter of 2017 with a 13.6% increase in visitors. In 2020 Japan will host the Tokyo Olympics, and the international sporting event is expected to boost the economy as much as 30 trillion Yen, which will contribute largely to stimulating the economy.

Achieving the inflation target still remains a priority for the government and it is still a challenging task, especially with adverse demographics, low productivity and the competitive threat from neighbours in China and Korea. Can Abenomics eventually lift Japan out of stubborn deflation for good?

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Tokyo, Japan

JAPAN FACTS --Area: 377,972.28 km2 Population: 126,760,000 Per capita: $42,860

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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.

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April 17th 2017 Norway to build the world’s first shipping tunnel Norway has announced ground-breaking plans to construct the world’s very first shipping tunnel in order to allow ships and freight containers to avoid dangerous and treacherous seas.

Passenger traffic is not going to be given priority over freight traffic in the plans, but leisure and other boats will be allowed to pass through, with the tunnel free to use for vessels under 20 metres long.

The impressive plans include proposals to burrow through an area of rocky peninsula on the country’s southwestern coast. According to Norwegian Transportation Minister Ketil Solvik-Olsen, the construction of the Stad Ship Tunnel will be able to accommodate cruise and freight ships weighing up to 16,000 tonnes and is expected to open in 2023. It will be 36 metres (118 feet) wide and 49 metres (162 feet) tall, and is estimated to cost at least 2.7bn Kroner (US$314m).

Solvik-Olsen, speaking on Wednesday as quoted in The Independent, said that sea currents and underwater topography in this part of the country’s southwestern coast “result in particularly complex wave conditions. We are pleased that the ship tunnel now becomes a reality.”

He also said that travel time between Norwegian cities and towns in the area would be reduced.

The tunnel’s construction is planned to begin at the narrowest point in the Stadlandet peninsula where the weather surrounding it has been considered for many years to be a danger to shipping. Construction is planned to start in 2019, and the project manager has estimated that a massive eight million tons of rock will have to be blasted out of the way to make room for the enormous tunnel.

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If completed, the tunnel would represent a marvel of modern engineering and would be a source of pride for the Norwegian government, having managed to construct a world first. The tunnel would look incredibly impressive, and could lead the way for other countries to give the green light to similarly ambitious projects.

April 20th A new way for housing?

The intersection between the need for new housing and the ongoing challenges with the way we power our society is an interesting one. A rapidly increasing population needs housing, and is forcing us to rethink our energy supply so that we don’t destroy the global climate in the process.

Tried and tested solutions such as new coal-fired power stations or more natural gas plants are the easy option, and it is easy to see why policy makers go for the simple route when there is such pressure on them to deliver immediately. However, this will not do in the long term as fossil fuels will eventually run out.

The latest attempt to bridge the gap between housing and our energy needs is being trialled in an area of rural Scotland which is desperately in need of new homes and affordable, renewable energy. The Berwickshire Housing Association has teamed up with Community Energy Scotland to build three lofty wind turbines on top of a 183m tall hill at Hoprigshiels Farm.

Scotland has a lot of potential wind power to be harnessed, and sites like this are perfect for taking a chance on turbines. As the giant turbine blades rotate over the windswept heath of the old county of Berwickshire, the electricity generated will serve two purposes.

Firstly, it will be sold back to the grid to provide sustainable energy for the local area. This will in turn reduce dependence on fossil fuel power generation which increases energy security for people and reduces bills.

Secondly, profits from the sale of clean energy will go to the creation of affordable homes for local people.

Unlike their English counterparts to the South, the Scottish Government has ended the ‘right to buy’ policy which allowed people to purchase their council houses and therefore reduce stock for people who needed them in the future. This has allowed housing associations, such as the aforementioned Berwickshire Housing Association, to come up with new ways to build homes and ensure that people in the future have somewhere to live.

Projects like this wind farm could pave the way for better, more sustainable housing policies across the world when it is up and running. A relatively small loan of approximately £11m was all the project needed to get off the ground. Considering it will eventually provide power for 5,900 homes and supply the seed money for many more homes to be built, this is a bargain.

It is predicted that the loan will be paid off within 15 years. The homes built and the economic security provided will last much longer. This is a project with no obvious downsides, which is a fantastic example of the sort of thing which communities can achieve if they are allowed to by their governments. The fossil fuel-backed energy companies are currently throwing more and more money at national governments as a final attempt to maintain their dominance over the market, but their economic case is diminishing more and more with each passing year.

Successful projects like the Hoprigshiels Farm wind power experiment will inevitably become more common in the coming years as an increasing number of communities see there is a way out of the energy monopolies which currently run the world.

April 25th The very hungry caterpillar The most interesting new technological innovations often come as a result of engineers looking at the natural world and seeing how it could be applied to their work. Some amazing examples are the insect proboscis which inspired micro-needle arrays used in skin grafts, photosynthetic technology based on plants, and the mirror-tube eyes of lobsters which have been harnessed to improve our microscopes.

However, sometimes a more upfront approach yields the best results. Why simply copy nature when you can involve nature directly?

Plastics are becoming such a huge problem in the oceans and landfill sites of the world because they simply do not degrade over any useful timeframe.

Plastic molecules are defined by very strong carbon-carbon bonds which are not broken down by fungi, bacteria, or any of the other organisms which usually work to degrade matter. Ultra-violet light can degrade plastic, but if there was enough of that getting through the atmosphere to destroy the abundant plastic in the world then we would have a whole different set of problems.

A Spanish scientist called Federica Bertocchini recently had a problem with her bees. A species of caterpillar known as a waxworm had infested her beehives and were rapidly eating through the wax which formed the structure of the bees’ home. She removed the waxworms and put them in a plastic bag to give her time to clean the hives and save the bees. Then something curious happened. By the time she had finished cleaning the hives, the waxworms had eaten their way out.

Were they truly digesting the plastic or just destroying it? Bertocchini was unsure and decided to grind up some worms and spread them on plastic to make sure.

As it turned out, even a worm paste was sufficient to eat through a standard polyethylene plastic bag in good time. This ability likely evolved by accident as a by-product of the ability to digest the beeswax in the beehives, but it could have important ramifications in the future.

We produce a lot of plastic. Of the almost 300 million tonnes of plastic released into the world every year, more than 8 million tonnes ends up in the oceans.

More goes into the ground. This is an amount almost impossible to imagine and it ends up staying where it is put for so long that it might as well be forever as far as we are concerned.

Are these waxworms a solution to the potential problem? Probably not, but the idea behind them is interesting. Plastic pollution is becoming a more severe issue every year and we desperately need a solution.

Even if everyone stopped dumping plastics tomorrow then there would still be hundreds of millions of tonnes in the world to deal with.

Instances like the waxworms found by Federica Betocchini may end up being most useful as a method to get this problem in the news more regularly and make people think about what is happening. There isn’t an easy solution, but every little helps...

May 3rd A new worldwide internet?

Increasingly, everything that matters either happens on the internet or is enabled by it. In the decades since the World Wide Web was launched the world has been changed almost beyond recognition along with people’s day to day lives.

However, there are issues with the internet. In most developed countries there exists a small number of service providers which essentially operate a cartel-like system and control everyone’s access. In many under-developed parts of the world there is often very little internet access at all. The speed with which the internet has proliferated means that in many ways the global poor live in a totally different world to those with reliable internet access.

So what is the solution to this?

SpaceX, Elon Musk’s rocket company, has long been planning to bring super-fast broadband to the world via a meshed constellation of satellites which would provide coverage to everyone no matter where they are.

This has been something of a pipe dream since it was first mooted several years ago, but recent testimony to the Senate Commerce Committee from Patricia Cooper, SpaceX Vice President of Satellite Government Affairs, has confirmed more details and even suggested a start date for the project.

SpaceX is planning to launch 4,425 custom satellites into orbit beginning in 2019 with a projected date of 2024 for the full complement to be in the skies above the earth. Traditional internet satellites sit in high orbits in order to cover the maximum amount of the earth possible with the smallest number of satellites to save on cost.

SpaceX has the distinct advantage of being able to launch their satellites more cheaply than any competitor thanks to their in-house Falcon 9 rocket which is cost efficient thanks to its reusability. In addition, the SpaceX satellites will be launched into a lower orbit than other satellites which means that more can be sent up at one time.

It is estimated that there were fewer than 1,500 satellites in total orbiting the earth at the end of 2016, so the plan to launch another 4,425 by 2024 will almost quadruple that total. This is clearly a huge undertaking and there will be many issues to iron out, but the potential rewards are surely worth it.

Having a worldwide internet service in one system will allow load to be spread evenly and services to be shifted around the world at peak times. The low earth orbit will also allow upgrades to be made and new satellites to be added to the system far more easily.

Imagine a future where you could take your laptop anywhere in the world and have no trouble accessing the internet? Life would suddenly become a lot more connected and the pace of communication and innovation would accelerate rapidly.

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SPACE AT A PREMIUM The rise of micro-dwellings

Words : Andrea Wong | View : Massimo Santi

With the world experiencing unprecedented urban growth in recent decades, many countries are feeling the strain of low urban housing supplies. By 2050, it is predicted that 6.33 billion people will live in cities, which equates to 66% of the forecasted global population of 9.6 billion.

With this in mind, the scope for innovative and experimental architecture has been a big theme in last few years, with both governments and developers collaborating in search of the best solution to housing. With a very limited amount of land to work with, architects have been exploring the concept of space by creating simplistic, compact homes to house a range of people.

Modular housing - UK Modular housing is an innovative, problem-solving housing method which has piqued our interest at Global Property Scene this year, as it could pick up the pace of house-building in the UK and change the way we live in the future. Many innovative developers have used this housing technique to get ahead of the game and design high-quality homes in a much shorter amount of time.

Many people have dubbed prefabricated homes as the perfect solution to the housing crisis, as they are quicker to build and are much more affordable than conventional homes. Offsite construction is accelerating in the UK, with JLL representative Simon Peacock confirming that it is rising by

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25% each year. It is becoming a more popular option for housing, with the technique allowing a 30% reduction in build time. In addition to this, these prefabricated houses only require 25% of the workforce needed for traditional construction measures in the UK. This housing method could be vital in the event of a ‘hard Brexit’, in which the UK could lose up to a third of its construction workforce.

In December last year, it was reported by The Telegraph that a historic deal between UK housing association Your Housing Group and a Chinese state-owned construction firm had been agreed. A £2.5bn joint venture which is supported by the Government has the vision to build 25,000 modular homes in the next five years. With this, it will open up the door for employment, with 1,000 new jobs to be created in modular housing factories. Like many prefab houses, they will feature an incorporated solar and energy-efficient design. The chief executive of Your Housing Group claims this method will ensure that there will be “more social and affordable homes across a wider geography of the UK”.

However, according to Property Investor News, modular housing is only cost-effective for buildings containing six or more floors for the time being, and the size of the module is limited to what is transportable by road. This means that it is an ideal solution for the undersupply of student pods and rooms in the UK, but not for alleviating the supply of spacious penthouse apartments yet. That said, many developers are embracing the

Containers used as modular housing

concept of tiny spaces in the belief that it will enhance the way we live and bring about the much-needed change to the global housing market.

Pocket Living – London, UK

Marc Vlessing, Chief Executive of Pocket Living said: “Getting high-quality homes built quickly is key to solving the housing crisis. Modular techniques will play an increasingly important role in meeting this challenge”.

The housing crisis is beginning to bite and the property market is faltering in London. According to PwC, 60% of its citizens are expected to be renting by 2025 due to the undersupply of unaffordable housing. Pocket Living, a developer based in London, offers affordable, well-designed homes, catering to the millions of young middle-income people in London who contribute to the city but are unable to afford the sky-high house prices.

Kasita - Texas, USA

The affordable housing provider has just built two brand new blocks of prefab apartments in Lambeth which are exclusively available for first-time buyers. The micro-apartments were constructed in a factory in Bedford using a production line method, resembling a car factory. This approach allows improvements in quality control, quicker delivery, a reduction in waste and higher levels of energy efficiency.

Based in Austin, Texas, the revolutionary concept of urban housing has impressed millennials across the world with its futuristic design and seamlessly integrated smart technology into the home.

Located in a prime location just a few minutes from Lambeth North and Westminister tube stations, the apartments are community-focussed, with communal areas and roof terraces for residents to meet and enjoy.

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Kasita, which in Spanish translates as ‘tiny house’ (casita), is an impressive concept which has evolved from an extreme experience by CEO Jeff Wilson. He tested the limits by living in a dumpster for a year and left with a whole new vision for housing, an impressive design that would be the sustainable solution to the ever-growing housing crisis.

The stackable home – encompassing 352 sqft – has interested the younger generation with its ability to be installed anywhere. The Austin-based start-up unveiled a tiny house prototype in 2015 and is now selling units for $139,000 with a discount for customers who wish to purchase multiple homes. The Kasita concept has appealed to a range of customers which includes urban millennials, the shrinking middle-class

Modern studio apartment

and retirees.

MicroPADs – San Francisco, USA

In March 2016, the Model One house was unveiled in the form of a rectilinear pod with a steel structural framework and clad in aluminium composite panels. Designed to enhance the space and make the micro-home bright and airy, the team incorporated a glass-walled living area, clerestories and 10-foot high ceilings. Impressively, the smart home is equipped with lights, window shading devices and an entertainment system which can be controlled by a mobile app.

San Francisco is known as a city experiencing unprecedented prosperity but on the other end of the scale is currently in a huge state of crisis with nearly 7,000 people living on the streets. In response to balancing the two realities, the city has undergone measures to help the homeless citizens.

Behind the innovative concept of microPADs is Patrick Kennedy, who is using a ‘Housing First’ approach. MicroPADs (Prefabricated Affordable Dwellings) are a quick and effective solution for not only providing homeless people with a place to stay, but a place to live.

As the company continues to grow, the team hopes that the Kasita concept will attract urban developers, with its future vision to create stackable units that can be slotted into a huge framework. The prefabricated homes will be slotted into ‘racks’ in a high-density solution to adapt to global urbanisation, an issue which is particularly alarming in America. Moving the self-contained units to another site will be simple as requests made through the app, and then the home will be transported via truck to another rack with a vacant space. Future plans include homes with wheelchair access, as well as a student house model in an attempt to appeal to a wider range of people.

Could these beautiful, small footprint homes be on the verge of disrupting the housing market?

These stackable pods are 160 sqft micro apartments which feature a bed, desk and storage solutions. Each dwelling is fully-furnished with a private bathroom and kitchenette, with a 9ft ceiling to create a more spacious feeling. It is hoped that the ground floor of the complex would include job placement opportunities as well as mental health services for the residents to use.

These MicroPADs are claimed to cost 40% less than regular homes and are manufactured 50% quicker than most prefab homes. Despite this, the Panoramic Interests’ micro-home proposal has been met with resistance by the government of San Francisco, especially with various labour unions who have complained about the MicroPADs being manufactured in China

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rather than locally.

Mr Kennedy has not been discouraged, with an agreement not yet in place, as he is already looking at private sites where he can construct a prefab development in San Francisco. Plans in Berkeley and Oakland are already going ahead to develop modular housing developments for homeless people with Oakland approving an agreement with Laney College. However, with Berkeley still without a chosen developer, Kennedy will be looking to put forward his application.

There are already two different prototypes of the micro-units built to entice the city, and the developer has claimed that once they have been given the green light they will be ready to mass-produce a line-up of units in the factory. Fully equipped, the units will be move-in ready in a week, and combined into a 200-unit complex in just a few months. Could this be the effective remedy for San Francisco’s chronic homelessness problem?

Coffin homes – Hong Kong, China Hong Kong is one of the most expensive places to live, with the average property priced 19 times the annual household income. Like San Francisco, wealth is unevenly distributed in Hong Kong, and many families and elderly people are forced to live in spaces as tiny as 20-square-foot and cost around $300 per month. These so-called ‘coffin homes’ are hidden amongst the towering modern architecture in the booming city.

Since 2012, property prices have nearly risen by 50% in Hong Kong, and it is estimated that more than 200,000 live in these tiny homes.

61-year-old Ziwa Wong has been living in a tiny space of 1.8 sqm for the last 20 years, and although he applied for public housing two years ago he is still waiting for a response from the government. It is predicted that those who cannot afford private property in the city may need to wait on average 4.7 years for a public rental flat. From figures taken last December, there were 148,000 applications, showing a strong spike in demand. With only 24% of Hong Kong’s land developed due to its hilly landscape, the government needs to find a method to increase available supply.

Many say that the substandard cage homes are slowly disappearing, however, a local landlord has created a luxury option in the form of a space capsule. Will we see more creative tiny homes in the future?

Muji Hut – Japan Japanese homeware brand Muji are set to release a prefab house which is only 9 sqm wide, and is described to be suited for both permanent residence and a holiday home. The Muji Hut will be on the market for $36,000 in Japan around September this year and, whilst there is no release date, the tiny home is hoping to make its way to Australia too where housing affordability is the cause of huge public debate.

Muji has unveiled a series of housing models, all built from Japanese wood. The micro-homes will also feature sliding glass doors and a small window on the rear wall to increase natural light and aid ventilation.

Built to be suitable in all environments, the exterior of the dwellings will be clad in wood charred black by a Japanese method known as ‘shou sugi ban’ which helps to prolong the life of the timber, and make the home resistant to fire, insects and decay. Furthermore, the Muji Hut will be built on a concrete foundation, protecting against ground moisture.

The problem with this home is that it is incredibly minimalistic without a bathroom or kitchen, which means buyers may be encouraged to add extra rooms. Many people may see the Muji Hut more as a holiday home which can be placed anywhere, from mountains, by the sea or in a garden.

As the world is anticipating the long-awaited breakthrough of a housing solution to alleviate the undersupply of affordable housing, developers will be pushing forward their tiny house concepts – promoting sustainable practises and a whole new way of living for all types of people. Many micro-home designs that we have seen over the last decade have proven that downsizing does not mean confined, substandard living. With our housing needs changing, the micro-dwelling trend is gaining momentum across the world. Watch this space!

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Coffin housing, Hong Kong

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GPS ATTENDS Global Property Scene attends some of the most exclusive events on the international calendar. To find out more visit our website. www.globalpropertyscene.com

ONE°15 Marina Club, Singapore

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EVENT REVIEW: SINGAPORE YACHT SHOW Words: Michael Smith

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The market for yachts in Asia has seen some considerable growth over the last 10 years. With China now boasting the largest number of billionaires, wealth in Asia continues to flourish. It seems like an obvious region to explore in a superyacht, with Asia offering some of the most picturesque scenery and wildlife diversity. The sheer number of islands to explore is endless, many of which offer private and secluded beaches, something you may struggle to find in either the Mediterranean or Caribbean.

Asia has been limited by its sparse yachting infrastructure, something many owners need if they’re going to feel comfortable exploring new parts of the globe. There are a whole host of large and famous ports dotted around the Mediterranean that can offer the servicing, maintenance and fuelling needed by some of the ocean’s largest private vessels. The same can be said about the Caribbean, with many of the largest yachts registered to the region. Asia is playing catch-up, as more destinations try to offer these essential services.

Sadly, it has been a difficult process winning over the right bodies able to approve the development of necessary services key to making the region accessible. It is not surprising to find there has been no real sense of urgency in facilitating the wealthy. Red tape has hampered much of the region’s progress, but there are hopes that with the growing number of wealthy people living in the region this could all be about to change.

The most prestigious yachting destinations have proven that having solid harbouring facilities can deliver a positive economic effect for residents.

Much of the revenue keeping Monaco’s local economy ticking over, irrespective of any financial downturn, is the yachting industry. Fees charged for docking aren’t the most important income - it’s the demand these ships generate for local business that makes the real impact.

Staffing, servicing, repair, resupplying and fuel are just a few of the industries which are thriving.

Ports in Hong Kong, Singapore and Thailand are now able to accept the largest yachts around. Owners can feel assured that their prized vessels will receive the right service when the reach Asia. And with growing interest, more routes are becoming available to the yachting community.

All of which brings us to this year’s edition of the Singapore Yacht show.

Many industry influencers agree that the Singapore Yacht Show is one of the most significant shows in the ASEAN market. The event drew more than 50 spectacular superyachts to the docks of ONE°15 Marina Club, along with prospective buyers, yacht brokerages, marine suppliers, and other luxury brands.

There is much positivity surrounding the event, with a good turnout of international buyers keen to look at the latest and greatest yachts on offer.

The world’s leading luxury brokerage firm, Fraser Yachts, put on a trio of amazing vessels: The 49.54m Sensation, the 43.4m Triple 8 and the 34m Azul A. Joining the fold for this year’s event were Simpson Marine, Azimut Singapore and Ferretti Group. All three made their debut, illustrating the growing demand in the region.

The event isn’t just about what’s on the water-attendees were also treated to a whole host of lifestyle offerings including on-board cocktail parties, wine tasting events, supercar parades and fashion shows. There was a large exhibition area that offered visitors a mixture of yachting products, as well as a host of luxury items from jewellery to property.

To me, it alluded to a similar feeling to that experienced at Top Marques in Monaco. The event was a celebration of luxury products and gave visitors the opportunity to indulge in some of the most exclusive goods available.

The yachts may have taken centre stage, but there is something for everyone at this event. With the closing ceremony in the bag, it was time to wave goodbye to ONE°15 Marina Club, and I look forward to seeing what the 2018 event has to offer.

Over the page, you will find three of the must-see yachts from this year’s event.

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Ocean Emerald, Rodriquez Yachts

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Silver Fast

Ambrosia III

--Manufacturer: Silveryachts Length: 77m Gross tonnage: 952 Price: US$86.9m --Standing as the largest superyacht ever to be displayed at the Singapore Yacht Show, Silver Fast is sure to stand out in any harbour. Capable of reaching speeds of up to 27 knots, this yacht has space for up to 18 guests, all of whom are sure to enjoy the outdoor cinema or have a relaxing dip in the glass-fronted Jacuzzi.

--Manufacturer: Benetti Length: 65m Gross tonnage: 1,639 Price: US$64.1m --The event’s second-largest vessel, Ambrosia III has accommodation for 12 guests across six cabins. The ship’s luxury features span four spacious decks and include a beautifully-finished piano bar, Luna inspired dining room, Jacuzzi dip pool and a small helipad.

With a crew of 18, Ambrosia III is sure not to disappoint.

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Note - Figures based on exchange rates and prices from : March 2017

Ocean Emerald --Manufacturer: Rodriquez Yachts Length: 41m Gross tonnage: 346 Price: US$24m --Designed by famed architect Lord Norman Foster and featuring a beautiful sweeping grey aluminium superstructure, Ocean Emerald is a truly unique proposition. The yacht features five cabins, and has space for up to 12 guests.

On-board amenities include a swimming platform, gym, Jacuzzi and home cinema.

Charters start at around US$95,000 a week.

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We create fantastic places for people, for inspired living.

Forshaw Land & Property Group

For more information and details upon products contact Tel: 0161 772 1394 | Web: www.forshawland.com

INVESTING IN GREECE Could it be a high-risk, high-reward opportunity?

Words : Hannah Wilde | View : Lambros Kazan

Greece. A country so ingrained with literature, philosophy, mathematics and science, and one of the early founders of modern democratic society as we know it today, is in crisis. What looks on the surface to be a picturesque country on the Balkan Peninsula, rather romantically described as being at the crossroads of Europe, Greece has a destabilising secret. Behind its scenic beauty, enhanced by the fact that it borders four different seas (the Aegean, the Ionian, the Cretan and the Mediterranean), the small but proud county has long been disguising an economy all but depleted, reliant on empty promises to mask an even emptier treasury.

mismanagement, in what the Guardian newspaper calls “10 years of [Greece] living beyond their means”. Upon adopting the Euro in 2001, it was easy for Greece, starry-eyed yet hapless, to tap into this new-found revenue stream—the new currency meant that Greece could easily secure funds from EU coffers at rock-bottom interest rates. And so Greece’s spending spree began: because finance was so easy to secure from the European Union, the country naturally took advantage of this in spades by using these cheap loans to plug a spending gap forged by the doubling of public sector wages, sky-high defence costs and soaring departmental spending.

The beginnings of Greece’s financial crisis

The latter soon came to define the Greek financial crisis, with the Greek Finance Ministry in particular becoming a poster-child for living high off the hog, as worldwide news outlets reported that the department spent an eye-watering €3,500 per month solely on newspapers. And so it seems Plutarch, the famous Greek historian prevalent in the 1st century AD, was correct in his prediction: “The real destroyer of the liberties of the people is he who spreads among them bounties, donations and benefits”. And of course this is what happened to Greece nearly 2,000 years later, with those who sought to spread borrowed benefits (successive governments so focussed on trading on empty promises) unwillingly began the chain reaction that would eventually lead to the destruction of the Greek people’s future liberties.

Whilst the world breathed a sigh of relief as the global financial crisis loosened its stranglehold on worldwide monetary policy around 2011-12, Greece was one of the only first-world countries not joining in with the celebrations. Out of the frying pan and into the fire, Greece was realising with sickening clarity that their financial woes were far from over. After years of irresponsible spending, Greece post-financial crisis found themselves faced with a bill to settle with international creditors to the tune of €300 billion (£253bn), as realisation hit with avid horror that their wallet is well and truly empty.

But how did Greece end up with a bill more than 63 times larger than the entire 2017 EU budget set aside for security and citizenship? As alluded to earlier, Greece’s fiscal crisis is the result of years of financial

And that’s exactly what happened. Ironically unfolding like a Greek tragedy, the country’s problems can be traced back to the collapse of the

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Athens, Greece

Lehman Brothers in 2008, the catalyst for a global financial crisis which brought into sharp focus Greece’s dire financial situation. Startlingly, Greece had been underplaying their financial security (or lack thereof) for years ere the global financial crisis, to no real consequence—it was somewhat of an open secret throughout Europe and beyond that Greece was nowhere near as financially sound as they suggested. What’s even more worrying is that this fact was not universally acknowledged, not even by the financial institutions who frequently and consistently kept lending to Greece.

However, when the financial crisis hit fever pitch, everything changed— Greece was suddenly and immediately blacklisted as money became more fiercely protected than ever before. With an almost non-existent treasury and debts racking up left, right and centre, the country was in trouble. The financial crisis opened lenders’ eyes to Greece’s fiscal uncertainty, and suddenly no markets were willing to lend to Greece. For that reason, come 2010 the country was heading towards bankruptcy at a startling speed. At this point, keen to avoid yet another international monetary crisis, the troika that is the European Central Bank, the International Monetary Fund (IMF), and the 28 other Eurozone nations— stepped in, issuing two bailouts to the financially-ravaged country to the tune of €240 billion. But naturally this was not the free money that Greece thus far had been enjoying: the bailouts came with stringent conditions

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attached, including substantial budgetary cuts, tax increases, economic overhauls, a more streamlined government, and a tighter clampdown on tax evasion. It’s said that the latter is one of the formative reasons why Greece relied so heavily on loans in the first place, with Athens-based think tank diaNEOsis finding that the country lost between 6-9% of economic output just last year alone in unpaid taxes—equivalent to over €11 billion.

Now we understand how Greece got into this mess in the first place, this leads to the question: knowing Greece’s questionable financial history, why would the European Union continue loaning them money with no clear means of paying it back? The New York Times gives a pretty convincing argument, tracing the start of the crisis all the way back to the economists at the IMF, who “did not foresee the crisis in Europe (from bank blow-ups in Spain and Ireland to sovereign bankruptcy in Greece) because many of its top executives, hailing from Italy, France, Spain and Portugal, had complete trusts in the sanctity and strength of the Euro”. In addition to this lack of hindsight, it was the IMF’s internal watchdog, The Independent Evaluation Office, rather than the Fund itself who blew the whistle on the gravity of the situation, realising with sickening clarity that “excessive borrowing by smaller countries using the Euro (namely Greece and Ireland) could have a destabilising effect on the whole currency zone”.

It’s for this reason that many people believe the lion’s share of the blame lies at the door of the creditors just as much as Greece itself. The only ones who could have prevented this financial crisis from happening in the first place were the very people spurring on Greece’s irresponsible fiscal trajectory—the bigwigs of the EU’s leading financial institutions were blissfully unaware of the unfolding crisis for too long, unwilling to challenge Greece’s officials who continued to make seismic financial demands. One such top executive at the IMF, Susan Schadler, acknowledges with hindsight the sad state of affairs in which these financial institutions soon found themselves in: the Fund was too easily swayed by European officials, who rationalised that not lending to Greece would cause widespread panic in the markets already ravaged by the financial crisis. Further to this, then-head of the European Central Bank Jean-Claude Trichet added more fuel to the fear-mongering fire, famously commenting that a restructuring of Greek debt would have the same effect on the global market as the fall of the Lehman Brothers, which sparked the initial crisis all those years ago.

“A new Greece” Greece has a long way to go to crawl out of the debt spiral which has been decades in the making and reverse the country’s reputation as the

wayward and fiscally irresponsible relation of the European Union. Forbes rather grandiosely takes this metaphor one step further, humanising the Greek crisis thus: “Greece is a bit like your dissolute brother-in-law—a spendthrift, he gets himself into financial trouble and asks for a loan, [which] you give to him based on his promise to stop drinking, smoking and romancing the ladies. He doesn’t, of course, but you really didn’t expect he would do so. Although he promised to repay you, he doesn’t understand why you are asking. You…give him more money, based on his redoubled promise to reform on his bad spending habits. And so it goes on”.

This analogy perfectly encapsulates the country’s reputation in the eyes of Europe, and indeed the rest of the world: Greece’s stock is at rock bottom, with its reputation with world leaders as depleted as its coffers.

The back-to-back austerity measures put in place by Greece’s many creditors (which The New York Times have defined as “a barrage of austerity measures, chiefly pensions cuts and tax increases over the last 6 years, in exchange for [substantial] bailouts”) have shrunk the Greek economy by a huge 25% in 5 years, and future financial independence for the country still seems a lifetime away. But ever the optimist, sitting Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras—the man currently leading the seemingly Sisyphean task of reversing Greece’s fortunes—is steadfast in his belief that things are looking up for his ravaged country. In his five-year outline

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for “a new Greece”, Tsipras is desperately trying to rally his troops: “We are passing from the nadir of a 7-year recession, to positive signs of growth”, pointing towards Greece’s 0.2% economic growth recorded in Q2 2016.

Further to this, Tsipras is aiming to make good on his consistent promises to lighten the load of the country’s austerity-weary population. He has rather grandiosely announced that the €246m raised from yet another recent auction of Greece’s private television licenses will go towards “the needs of the welfare state” rather than going towards the paying down of their ever-increasing debts in attempt to win back his public. This princely sum has already been earmarked for helping provide thousands more free meals in the educational system, helping recruit an ambitious 10,000 new doctors and nurses for state hospitals, and towards the funding for a programme aimed at repatriating professionals who have left the country as a result of its ongoing financial crisis.

However, and perhaps unsurprisingly, the Greek people are not so easily swayed. Still haunted by the many promises of Tsipras and his predecessors that the era of austerity is coming to an end, Greece’s population have been fooled before by the same false promises that landed their beloved country in the hot water it now can’t escape from.

And their frustrations are plain to see. Pensions have been hit incredibly hard by years of austerity measures (decreasing 40% since 2011), and as recently as Tuesday 7th May Tsipras has yielded to yet more demands, this time to make the Greek labour market more competitive by making it easier for employees to be sacked—a move which seems almost counterproductive in a country whose unemployment rate is at a staggering 25%, and whose youth unemployment rate is almost double.

Greece is in dire straits, and naturally with no clear conclusion on the horizon, the Greek people are fast losing patience with a government that poses more questions than it answers.

Protests have for years been a regular occurrence up and down the country, with people turning up in their thousands to rally vehemently against further cuts and the privatisation of Greece’s public services.

Armed with placards calling out for action (“Relieve the debt!”) and cursing the creditors who many believe put Greece in this predicament in the first place (“IMF out!”), the weary population can do little more than watch in horror at the unfolding events. In what the Greek people are calling “the biggest sell-off of national wealth in the country’s history”, politicians are now resorting to auctioning off key infrastructural services to the highest bidder. It’s been revealed that the latest austerity cuts will see both Athens and Thessaloniki water boards go under the hammer in exchange for bailout finds, doing nothing to ease the sense of desperation felt by the Greek population at the hand their poor country has been dealt. Speaking for the people, president of healthcare charity Doctors of the World Nikitas Kanakis acknowledges with some sadness that the fierce austerity measures Greece has been strong-armed into accepting has led to a “humanitarian crisis, [which] leaves a bitter taste in my mouth, because we are used to hearing ‘humanitarian help’ as an expression used for third-world countries, not members of the EU”.

With all the will in the world, Tsipras’ task is a mammoth one—good intentions are not enough to reverse the effects of financial mismanagement decades in the making. That said, there have been positive developments in the standoff between Greece and its creditors of late. Pierre Moscovici of the European Commission for Economic and Financial Affairs is much buoyed by the progress made between the conflicting parties in the formative months of 2017, saying: “It’s time to turn the page on this long and difficult austerity chapter for the Greek people.

With this agreement, we now need to write a new story of stability, jobs and growth for Greece and the Euro area as a whole”. A noble goal for sure, but whether (or rather, how) this will become a reality remains to be seen.

Light at the end of the tunnel Financial woes aside, there are some rays of sunshine escaping from the increasingly black nimbus that has for too long doused the country in darkness. Tourists are clearly not as influenced by fiscal gloom as its residents, since the country has been somewhat of a tourist hotspot in recent years. The Greek tourism industry is expecting 28m visitors in 2017, a much higher projection than a year earlier, with leading British travel company Thomas Cook seeing a huge 40% jump in bookings to Greece this year alone. This is incredibly promising for the country’s economy, especially as travel and tourism—one of Greece’s most promising

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sectors—generates around one-fifth of the country’s entire GDP and employs approximately one-fifth of the country’s workforce. This rise in tourism is expected to have a substantial effect on the wider Greek economy, with property website Global Property Guide citing the tourism industry as the leading factor in a predicted economic growth of 2.7% in 2017 and a further 3.1% in 2018. Small steps to be sure, but steps in the right direction.

Another area which the sun is currently shining on is Greece’s housing market. Signs of recovery are evident, albeit slow—PriceWaterhouseCooper (PwC) have acknowledged that “demand and supply in the Greek real estate market will return to pre-crisis levels [as] annual investments in real estate will reach €4.5bn on average”, although they do allude to the fact that it will be a growth at a slower pace than the economy. This growth is in large part due to the relative collapse of house-building, with construction dropping a huge 95% from 2007 to 2016. As with any markets in the developed world, no matter the political or economic landscape, people will always need homes to live in. In addition, house prices in Greece are low, currently sitting around 40% below 2008 levels, a fact which goes some way to explaining why research from the Bank of Greece shows that a huge 80% of property transactions today are cash-only, with only 20% reliant on finance. It’s clear there’s an appetite in the market, as buyers are keen to snap up property before the recovery of the market reaches full maturity.

Naturally, this has piqued substantial investor interest. Forbes reports that Greece has “a real estate market where many properties are being purchased at a healthy rate”, specifically naming Russia as one of the main countries currently propping up Greece’s investment market. That’s not to say that the Grecian housing market is not without its troubles—namely unpredictable prices, higher-than-average property taxes and tightening credit restrictions—but the market as a whole certainly looks a lot more robust than the wider economy. There is definite mileage in the Greek housing market, or so says Forbes: “In terms of price and long-term opportunity, there are many investors (particularly those from Russia) who are willing to buy up at least the luxury properties”. This hasn’t escaped the notice of local estate agents, with Athens-based real estate agency Ellika commenting: “Over the past few years we have seen a rise in demand from foreigners wanting to purchase a home in Athens”, going on to say that non-Greeks account for somewhere in the region of 30% of his firm’s annual sales transactions when “just a few years ago [foreign] interest was nil”. The reason is that Europeans especially see cultural centres like Athens as a golden opportunity for low-cost investment.

Therefore, it’s easy to see why the New York Times has identified property as a potential “pillar of recovery” for the country. Investing in the Grecian property market is not for everyone—certainly not for the risk-adverse— but the potential is definitely there, if you’re willing to look. After all, they do say that one man’s trash is another man’s treasure.

Conclusion Whichever way you look at it, Greece is in crisis. With a debt to GDP ratio hovering around 180%—over double the Eurozone average of 85%—just how and when Greece will claw itself out of debt is one that only someone with a crystal ball and the gift of Sight can know. But the signs are all looking positive, especially as Greece is seemingly already aware of its “Eureka!” moment that could end all its fiscal worries. Whilst tax evasion was one of the predominant reasons for the crisis in the first place, recouping all this lost tax could ironically be the country’s ticket out of crisis mode. DiaNEOsis research shows that Greece has far more self-employed workers than the European average, the majority of whom hide up to 60% of their income. To this end, it’s Bloomberg’s belief that “tapping [into] this money would completely change Greece’s debt repayment math, [making] a 3.5% sustainable surplus, or speed up growth”. Only time will tell if Greece will heed this advice, but it’s definitely a positive sign that, as the Bloomberg headline suggests, “Greece has the resources to heal itself”. With this in mind, it’s hard to disagree with Prime Minister Tsipras’s vehemently positive observation that there is indeed “light at the end of the tunnel” for Greece, this small but proud country at the crossroads of Europe.

After all, taking advice from 4th century Greek philosopher Epicurus: “You don’t develop courage by being happy…you develop it by surviving difficult times and challenging adversity”.

This, at least, the Greek people have in spades.

Parthenon temple on Athenian, Athens

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...

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

THE FUTURE OF CHARITY How do we level the playing field?

Words : Alex Timperley | View : Eunika Sopotnicka

The daily news is often not much more than a continuous parade of depressing statistics about how everything is going wrong and getting worse. We are bombarded by images of environmental disasters and have missile strikes from the other side of the world presented to us with breathless excitement by fawning television presenters.

“If it bleeds, it leads” is the catch phrase of the fear-based news industry which has taken over the airwaves and colonised the newsstands, tapping into our anxieties in order to increase viewing statistics and revenues.

When watching the news you could be forgiven for thinking that the world is in a state of continuous collapse and that human misery is a growth industry – but you would be wrong. The fragmented reality promoted across news organisations and the internet is a false narrative which ignores many of our most stunning achievements. The world is not falling into ruin, crime rates are not growing, and the kids are alright.

We are far from perfect and make a lot of mistakes – most obviously and scarily when it comes to our stewardship of the environment – but the truth is that there is a lot which we are getting very right. This is most obvious when you consider that we currently live in the most peaceful era in recorded history. Despite the seemingly non-stop warfare and terrorism across the world, fewer people are dying as a result of violence than probably at any point in human history.

Medical science continues to advance and prove itself equal to many

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diseases and viruses which have previously been so unstoppable that they were considered to be the acts of a vengeful god. The recent outbreak of Ebola in West Africa was quarantined and destroyed in record time and is now on the verge of joining the likes of smallpox on a list of eradicated diseases. The last two decades have seen a more than 50% decline in deaths from malaria, almost 40 million deaths from tuberculosis have been prevented and new HIV infections have fallen by more than 40%. The fact that the average worldwide life expectancy has gone from 46 years in 1950 to more than 76 years today is not a coincidence – it is a result of hard work and a determination to better our own lot that is deeply human.

More than 700 million people around the world are still classed as being undernourished, including more than 90 million children, but this number is coming down all the time. More than one billion people have been lifted out of extreme poverty since 1990 and the number of people living on less than US$1.25 a day has more than halved over the same time period.

Child mortality has also decreased by more than 50% since 1990 and global enrolment in primary education has increased by over 12% since 2000.

There is still much work to do to but the trend is heading solidly in the right direction. In so many ways the world is getting better, even though it often doesn’t feel like that. Indeed, there is an argument to say that we are wired to pay more attention to the bad news because an awareness

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Man collects fresh drinking water, Sierra Leone

Africa facts --> Seventy-five per cent of the world’s poorest countries are located in Africa > Women in sub-Saharan Africa are more than 230 times more likely to die during childbirth or pregnancy than women in North America > Malaria deaths in Africa alone account for 90 per cent of all malaria deaths worldwide > In sub-Saharan Africa, 589 million people live without electricity

Displaced persons camp, South Sudan

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of potential threats is a very useful evolutionary trait. However, new communications technologies give us the ability to find the good and to celebrate the progress we have made. We are getting smarter, healthier and more long lived all the time.

One of the clearest indications of our ability to work together to help everybody is the continued growth of charitable giving. Generosity is a trait inherent to humans, and when we exercise it the world tends to improve.

The latest numbers from 2015 confirm that approximately US$373bn was given to charitable causes around the world in that year, which was a record level and equated to more than 2% of the world’s total GDP. 2015 was the sixth straight year that charitable giving had increased following the 2008 banking crisis and there is no indication that the 2016 numbers will buck the trend.

The majority of charitable donations around the world come from individuals or bequests from people written into their will which are activated after they pass away. Businesses and corporations also donate a sizeable amount each year. The big winners when it comes to receiving donations are educational charities, health organisations and arts and cultural foundations.

But how effective is charitable giving? It is fairly easy to judge donations to cancer or HIV research as fairly successful. Money goes in and ground-breaking research comes out. Likewise, when donations are given to an art gallery to fund the purchase of a painting or collection then it is easy to see where the money is going. However, sometimes it is not so easy to measure and all too often money can be wasted. Good intentions do not always lead to ideal results and there is a suspicion that a lot of money is lost to inefficiency, especially when it comes to the larger charities.

Charities which aim to fight poverty are an interesting case study in this regard. Poverty is a structural issue rather than one of laziness or ignorance. People can move in and out of poverty each year but the holes in the economic system which trap people remain. For this reason, it is easy to treat the symptoms of the issue rather than the root cause and declare a program a success if it lifts 50 people out of poverty even when nothing has been done to address the reason they were in that place to start with. This is why it is easy for us all to sponsor a cow or send a pile of mosquito nets to a Saharan village and then be confused when this doesn’t actually eradicate poverty. Taking small actions which make us feel better doesn’t actually help in the long term. So what is the solution?

The theory is simple – we take money and give it to people in need directly so that they can invest it in the things which will actually improve their lives, dependent on their individual circumstances. If we buy someone a cow they don’t need or can’t afford to look after then it doesn’t help. If we send them that money directly instead and they spend it on fishing equipment which allows them to feed their family and make some money by selling the extra fish, then we are solving the structural problem by addressing the cause rather than the effect. Sponsoring a donkey which sends us Christmas cards might make us feel better for a while, but it probably isn’t the best way to help.

The idea of simply giving people money and trusting them to use it sensibly and help themselves will always run into opposition. Those who are the least likely to give to charity tend to argue that when you give people money they will “waste” it on whatever the person considers to be immoral, or they will simply stop working. Whilst this assumption of selfishness is likely a reflection of the person making the objection, prejudice towards the global poor is incredibly widespread despite the fact it is based on nothing but ill-informed supposition and a basic lack of empathy towards those who have been born into bad circumstances. Unfortunately it will persist until there is unequivocal evidence that it is wrong.

The charity Give Directly is proposing to take this idea one step further by using charitable donations to establish the largest Universal Basic Income (UBI) experiment in history. The idea of introducing a UBI has been around since Thomas More first floated the idea in his 16th century masterpiece Utopia and it has been taken up at various points since then by figures as diverse as Milton Friedman and Martin Luther King. What differentiates it from other welfare programmes is in the name: it is universal. Everyone rich or poor would receive the same amount of money without means testing, regardless of their situation. In this way, UBI would cover the basic necessities of life for everyone over their lifetime.

All of the many small-scale UBI experiments which have been carried out

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Kilimanjaro, Tanzania

around the world have produced a similar set of results: hospitalisation rates decreased, school performances and productivity increased, and domestic violence and mental health issues declined sharply.

There is a lot we don’t know about the specific workings of a UBI system because it has never been implemented, but the evidence is mounting that it might be a good idea. A good place to start is with the world’s population currently living in poverty, because they need help the most.

As mentioned previously, there are approximately 700 million people in the world who are living in extreme poverty and they don’t really have the time to wait around on Western governments doing piecemeal experiments over decades before deciding their fate.

So, there is a long-standing structural problem across the world which is keeping people trapped in crushing poverty and there is a well-established charitable impulse among those who are not in poverty to try and help those who are. We also have a potential solution, but no evidence beyond an educated guess that it works. We need more hard

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data – and that is where Give Directly comes in.

Give Directly is going to spend US$30m running a stringent long-term trial in Kenya. Four groups of villages will be involved like so: > Long-term basic income: 40 villages with recipients receiving roughly US$0.75 per adult per day, delivered monthly for 12 years > Short-term basic income: 80 villages with recipients receiving the same monthly amount, but only for 2 years > Lump sum payments: 80 villages with recipients receiving a lump sum payment equivalent to the total value of payments to the short term stream > Control group: 100 villages not receiving cash transfers.

Thanks to Give Directly, in little over a decade we will have a complete

mass data set on the effects of various forms of UBI which can be studied and applied across the world. Comparing the first two groups will provide information on how much of an effect the guarantee of future transfers has on people. For instance, are they more likely to start a business if they have the guarantee of income for another 10 years than if that is not the case? The comparison between the second and third groups will help to assess the impact of splitting a payment up compared to what people do with a lump sum.

of it goes to solving the structural problems which are the root cause of global poverty. Sending a family a cow is good, but if they can’t afford to look after it then the cow is worse than useless. It is impossible for us to really know what people need when we look on from our privileged positions in developed countries. Rather than guess, perhaps we should just let them decide?

When it comes to measuring charitable spending, a randomised control trial is the best way to carry out a reliable impact assessment, and those carried out by Give Directly confirm that every US$1,000 given to those in extreme poverty translates into US$270 in increased earnings, US$430 in increased assets and US$330 in increased spend on nutrition.

This experiment from Give Directly will at a minimum provide help for thousands of the poorest people on earth and at best it could lead us to an entirely new funding model for charitable donations in the future. The charity estimates that it would cost as little as US$80bn to lift 700 million people out of extreme poverty if the money was given to them directly rather than via the medium of westerners going to a remote village and digging a well.

The increased earnings and increased spend on nutrition are important, but it is the increased amount of assets which is the real prize. As discussed earlier, a main issue with charitable donations is that so little

US$80bn is less than one fifth of the total amount given charitably across the world every year. Maybe it is time to give directly, and smartly. It is surely at least time to try.

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A TRUE OASIS UAE leaps and bounds ahead in the construction sector

Words : Hannah Wilde | View : Umar Shariff

The United Arab Emirates (UAE), founded on 2nd December 1971, is a Middle-Eastern federation made up of seven unique but interconnected emirates situated on the Arabian Peninsula—Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Sharjah, Ajman, Umm Al Quwain, Fujairah and Ras Al Khaimah. Across a total area of 30,000 square miles on the south-west coast of the Persian Gulf live a population of around 8.1 million people, in one of the most dynamic and exciting areas of the world.

Whilst once the UAE was almost wholly dependent on fishing and a pearl industry that was already in decline, the discovery of oil reserves in the 1950s made the region very rich, and in doing so fuelled the growth and modernization needed to turn the area into the revolutionary hub we all know today. Since this discovery that reversed UAE’s fortunes, oil is firmly ingrained in the UAE’s history, and for good reason—according to Zayed University, the United Arab Emirates has one of the highest per capita incomes in the world at nearly US$25,000, thanks in large part to its command of approximately 10% of the world’s total known oil reserves (split into 90% in Abu Dhabi and 10% in Dubai).

The growth of the UAE seemingly came from nowhere. The BBC comments that the UAE “has grown from a quiet backwater to one of the Middle East’s most important economic centres”, which is an incredible

feat for a country whose main city of Abu Dhabi only constructed its first paved road in 1961. The driving force of the modern United Arab Emirates as we now know it can be credited to the late Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahayan, who first held the post of emir of Abu Dhabi, and the first ever President of the UAE, a position he filled for almost 33 years until his death in 2004.

It was Zayed’s vision to unify the Emirates into one united federation, and in his capacity as one of the world’s wealthiest men (valued at an estimated US$20bn), that allowed the emir to create the architectural and infrastructural marvel that now dominates the southern coast of the Arabian Peninsula. The UAE embassy remembers the late founder of the Emirates as a philanthropist, going as far as to say that “one foundation of his philosophy as a leader and statesman was that the resources of the country should be fully used to the benefit of the people. This extended to the women of the UAE, who flourished under his visions of education, employment and equality for all Emiratis”. To this end, Zayed was instrumental in pioneering investments into critical infrastructure like hospitals, roads and schools for the benefit of residents. The praise doesn’t end there: in his obituary, the Guardian credited Zayed as the one who “wrested the UAE from sleepy backwardness, and transformed it into a modern economic dynamo”, with historian Rosemary Said Zahlan calling

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Abu Dhabi, UAE

this metamorphosis “one of the phenomena of the modern era”.

But has the United Arab Emirates’ future died with its exalted leader Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahayan?

The future of the UAE Far from shrinking at the loss of the man who is credited with its creation, the future of the United Arab Emirates looks incredibly bright as the country continues to build on Zayed’s legacy. The UAE (led in large part

by Dubai and Abu Dhabi) has always been at the forefront of revolutionary technology and infrastructure, and is not afraid of rewriting the rules. Not content with having the largest structure in the world in Dubai’s Burj Khalifa (sitting at 828 metres high), plans are currently underway to create another huge structure that will eventually surpass the Burj Khalifa when built. This new skyscraper, aptly named The Tower, will form the centrepiece of the 3.7 square mile Dubai Creek redevelopment project, according to the Telegraph.

The Tower will certainly earn its place in the history books. Described as “a slender, streamlined structure with a needlepoint-like tip”, the building

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will, in true Middle Eastern style, have several garden observation decks that offer 360 degree views of the city, as well as rotating glass balconies, a luxury hotel, and a selection of high-end shops. The sky-high development is expected to reach completion in 2020 in time for the Dubai World Expo, a prestigious event described on its official website as “a global destination for millions to share ideas, showcase innovation, encourage collaboration and celebrate human ingenuity”. These World Expo events have been catalysts for such incredible revolutionary inventions such as the typewriter and the x-ray machine, so who knows what will come of the Dubai event, the first ever World Expo in the Middle East. With this kind of cultural and innovative gravitas at its fingertips, it’s no wonder Dubai is at the forefront of modernisation, and is recognised the world over as a thriving and ever-developing metropolis.

The World Expo is just the tip of the iceberg for the UAE: the country’s plans are grand and seemingly know no bounds. If news outlets are to be believed, Dubai also has its eye on creating the world’s first 3D-printed skyscraper, a huge scoop that has the potential to transform the entire construction industry. The pioneers of this ambitious scheme are Cazza, a Dubai-based construction firm that aim to utilise “crane printing” to create the building: “Through our technologies, we will be able to build

architecturally complex buildings at never-before-seen speeds…it is all about economies of scale where the initial high technology costs will reduce as we enter the mass-production phase”. Plans for the world’s first rotating skyscraper are also in the pipeline, again with visions of a grand unveiling at the World Expo in 2020. If the architect’s vision becomes a reality, the rotating building will stand at 1,375 feet tall, with each of its 80 storeys able to rotate individually around its concrete core. Nothing like this has ever been even attempted, so it is incredible to see Dubai testing the construction sector to the very limits of possibility to create the biggest, the best and the most exciting structures in the world.

Going one step further, perhaps one of the most exciting projects in Dubai’s infrastructural roster is the much-touted ‘Mall of the World’ scheme which, as the name suggests, when completed will attract people from all over the globe to bask in the magnificence of such a man-made wonder.

In what media and residents alike are already calling the world’s first climate-controlled city, the Mall of the World has been borne out of necessity. Many tourists have been deterred from visiting Dubai by the city’s sweltering heat, which can reach as high as 113 degrees Fahrenheit (45 degrees Celsius) in the summer months. Therefore this new infrastructure, constructed under a huge retractable glass dome, will be

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Burj Khalifa, Dubai

set at a much cooler temperature than the harsh conditions outside to “enhance Dubai’s tourist infrastructure as soon as possible”, according to UAE Vice President Sheikh Mohammed. What’s more, if the Chief Executive Officer of Dubai Holding, Ahmad Bin Byat, is to believed: “the project will follow the green and environmentally friendly guidelines of the Smart Dubai model. It will be built using state-of-the-art technology to reduce energy consumption and carbon footprint, ensuring high levels of environmental sustainability and operational efficiency.”

Not content with breaking one record of being the world’s first climate-controlled city, Mall of the World will also accommodate the world’s largest shopping centre (complete with over 100 hotels), as well as an indoor park, theatres, wellness resorts, its own transit system, and even the largest indoor theme park in the world across its expansive 48 million sqft area. Although a million miles away from a conventional city, Dubai’s brainchild will copy a traditional city’s format by having independent districts for every taste and inclination, including a cultural district based on London’s West End and New York’s Broadway, as well as a ‘celebration walk’ in homage to Barcelona’s La Rambla.

The idea behind this scheme is, according to its mastermind Dubai Holding, to offer tourists an alternative destination in Dubai where they “will be able to enjoy a week-long stay without the need to leave the City or use a car. The 7km (4.3 mile) long promenades connecting all facilities will be covered during the summer and open during the winter, ensuring pleasant temperatures throughout the year”. To put the huge scheme in context, the city will be four times the size of the huge Dubai Mall have the capacity to host over 180 million visitors annually, and naturally will have a huge price tag to match. According to the project’s chief executive, the structure will require a mammoth AED2.5bn (over US$680m) “every year for the next 10 years”—putting the initial outlay at a collossal AED25bn (approximately US$6.8bn).

However, as monumental as the Mall of the World city will undoubtedly be, it is nothing compared to the UAE’s 100-year plan which, if the UAE have their way, will involve the creation of the first ever mini-city on Mars by the year 2117. Showing their intent, this grand announcement was made

by Prime Minister of the UAE Shaikh Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum and Crown Prince Shaikh Mohammad Bin Zayed Al Nahyan in February 2017 at the World Government Summit in the presence of representatives from 138 governments across the world, as well as six major international organisations and leading international tech companies. The former, in his address to world leaders, made an impassioned plea that “the landing of people on other planets has been a long-time dream for humans, [so] our aim is that the UAE will spearhead international efforts to make this dream a reality—the new project is a seed that we are planting today, and we expect the next generations to reap its fruit”.

As revolutionary as this project seems, it’s perhaps considered a natural step forward for the United Arab Emirates, a country deeply proud of its inclusion in the list of the nine most influential countries in the world to invest in space science and exploration. And it seems this is much more than rich men’s folly: the UAE couldn’t have made their intentions any clearer regarding their intent with their space programme, announcing their Mars Probe mission in 2015 which will send the first spacecraft in the Arab world to Mars by 2021. All space programmes will be funded by the UAE’s ample state coffers, but Al Jazeera reports that “the project is set to be developed and executed in partnership with major international scientific research institutions”. These huge leaps in aerospace exploration come as part of the huge US$5.4bn investment the UAE has already invested in its own space agency, which was established in 2014 as a Pan-Arab Space Agency working in partnership with the National Centre of Space Studies of France, as well as the UK space agency.

This goes to show that, although the original pioneer of the United Arab Emirates we know is gone, his creativity, innovation and vision for the future lives on in its residents, construction workers and architects, who all work together on creating a collective vision that other cities, countries and even continents can only ever dream of. If all of the UAE’s weird and wonderful ideas come to fruition, what will be left in its place is a city that’s not afraid to change, to take chances, and to challenge the boundaries of conventionality to create something the likes of which the world has never seen before. Whether that city is on earth or on Mars, one thing is for sure: the United Arab Emirates is, and will continue to be, at the forefront of growth, innovation and creativity, for the next 10, 100 and maybe even 1,000 years to come.

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Palm Jumeirah, Dubai

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BEWARE THE INTERNET The rise of the hackers

Words : Will Leyland | View : Romas

If you cast your mind back to the last time you saw a ‘hacker’ in a film then the chances are that a few clichés were touched on. Convention has it that the hacker must be furiously tapping the keys on his keyboard at lightning speed whilst sweating like an Olympic runner. It’s equally likely that on the screen of their computer were a series of green numbers and indecipherable symbols set to a black background, maybe even dropping down ‘Matrix style’. If you have watched Fast and Furious 8 then there is a quite glorious example of the ‘Hollywood hacker’ in Ludacris who, cast as the computer geek, is able to swiftly and easily hack in to government mainframes simply by flipping his laptop lid open and tapping some keys.

Easy peasy lemon squeezy, as they might say.

The actual reality of hacking couldn’t be further from the Hollwoodisation that has occurred since the internet rose to prominence in the mid to late nineties. Whilst overtly complicated hacking scandals do occur, the technology available to multinational businesses and governments alike often mean that the sheer manpower and time required to circumnavigate their systems has made the endeavour ineffective. Rather than tapping away at laptops in the dark, then, most are now reverting to rather simpler methods.

There is a comparative example of this principle which we can refer to.

Some years ago after the turn of the millennium car thefts were starting to spin out of control. Sophisticated criminals had managed to perfect the art of ‘hot-wiring’ cars as well as hacking in to car computers to steal expensive cars. Subsequent to this development companies like BMW, Mercedes and Audi invested millions in to their anti-theft technology to make stealing the car as difficult as possible. Specialised key systems,

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vastly complicated computer systems and other features were soon installed into the cars to avoid this happening. Police and anti-crime agencies were expecting to see criminals becoming even more advanced in order to keep up. What actually happened was strange; criminals stopped bothering to keep up and instead just started throwing bricks through kitchen windows in order to steal the keys. They went back to basics, quite simply.

Funnily enough it’s easy to think of this example when reading about how Google and Facebook were, in April, victims to a $100 million phishing scam. It’s quite ridiculous really to think of multi-billion dollar companies which commit such vast resources to combatting cybercrime falling victim to a simple e-mail scam but it highlights a growing trend in online fraud and ‘hacking’. Technology and resources have hit, generally speaking, a point by which criminals can no longer keep up so rather than try they’re going back to the tried and tested ‘brick through the window’ approach.

The man accused of being behind the Google and Facebook scam, Evaldas Rimasauskas, 48, allegedly posed as an Asia-based manufacturer and deceived the companies from at least 2013 until 2015. As reported by the BBC at the time, “Fraudulent phishing emails were sent to employees and agents of the victim companies, which regularly conducted multimillion-dollar transactions with [the Asian] company,” the US Department of Justice (DOJ) said. The emails purported to be from employees of the Asia-based firm, the DOJ alleged, and were sent from email accounts designed to look like they had come from the company, but in fact had not. The DOJ also accused Mr Rimasauskas of forging invoices, contracts and letters “that falsely appeared to have been executed and signed by executives and agents of the victim companies”.

How could it be that a man sitting in a room in Lithuania managed to steal $100 million from two of the world’s richest companies just using an email address?

It’s worth drawing a fairly significant definition between the international hacking scandals we saw in the US elections and online fraud for the avoidance of confusion. Hacking itself is defined as to “gain unauthorized access to data in a system or computer.” That is a broad definition though.

There have been well publicised and embarrassing hacking scandals for major Western companies such as TalkTalk in the UK, Yahoo in the US and UK and also Wonga in the UK recently. In Wonga’s case, 250,000 customers had their personal details compromised by criminals who had gained access to their servers through computer programming. Similar scandals have previously threatened to engulf TalkTalk in the UK, where 157,000 people had their phone numbers, names and bank details stolen by a 16 year old boy from his bedroom in Norwich.

The biggest breach suffered by the three, however, was the theft of data from a staggering one billion Yahoo customers. Although there has been no confirmation of the perpetrators and no charges brought so far, Yahoo released a statement on its website closer to the time saying “An unauthorised party” broke into the accounts. The hackers used “forged ‘cookies’” – bits of code that stay in the user’s browser cache so that a website doesn’t require a login with every visit, wrote Yahoo’s chief information security officer, Bob Lord. The cookies “could allow an intruder to access users’ accounts without a password” by misidentifying anyone using them as the owner of an email account. The breach may be related to theft of Yahoo’s proprietary code, Lord said.

State sponsored hacking has been in the news too recently you may have noticed. Following from Donald Trump’s shock win in the presidential elections in the US last year a string of allegations have been flying around Washington and back and forth from Moscow. It has been alleged by many in the American capital that Russian state sponsored hackers interfered in the election process, perhaps most famously by hacking the Democratic Party’s computers. Hillary Clinton knows a thing or two about cyber security by now.

According to Vice, on March 19 of last year, Hillary Clinton’s campaign chairman John Podesta received an alarming email that appeared to come from Google. The email, however, didn’t come from the internet giant. It was actually an attempt to hack into his personal account. In fact, the message came from a group of hackers that security researchers, as well as the US government, believe were spies working for the Russian government. At the time, however, Podesta didn’t know any of this, and he clicked on the malicious link contained in the email, giving hackers access to his account.

The data linking a group of Russian hackers—known as Fancy Bear, APT28, or Sofacy—to the hack on Podesta is also yet another piece in a growing heap of evidence pointing toward the Kremlin. And it also shows a clear thread between apparently separate and independent leaks that have appeared on a website called DC Leaks, such as that of Colin Powell’s emails; and the Podesta leak, which was publicised on WikiLeaks. All these hacks were done using the same tool: malicious short URLs hidden in fake Gmail messages.

National governments, international companies, multi-billion dollar enterprises and others have fallen victim to a range of scams, hacks and break-ins with varying levels of complexity. From the Yahoo ‘fake cookie’ hack to Google and Facebook wiring money to Lithuania simply on the back of an e-mail, things seem to be getting a little out of hand. It’s not just big companies that are targeted though, as the British Chamber of Commerce revealed its own figures which say that one in five British companies in the last twelve months have been hit.

The report found that only 24% of businesses said they had security in place to guard against hacking, despite the rising danger of attacks and increasing publicity about the threat. Larger companies, defined as those with at least 100 staff, were more susceptible to cyber-attacks, with 42% of big businesses falling victim to cybercrime, compared with 18% of small companies.

The question for those vulnerable to attack is: what can you do to protect yourself? The answer often lies within taking the simplest actions. A large number of SME British businesses have simply ignored the threat in the

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Yahoo headquarters, Sunnyvale, United States

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hope that they won’t be targeted but now is the time to act.

A major threat to SMEs are ransomware attacks – malicious software that locks a device, such as a computer, tablet or smartphone, and then demands a ransom to unlock it.

Most companies don’t train their staff in what to look out for in suspicious or malicious emails and so a culture of complacency has, in many cases, set in. Companies vulnerable to attack should be aware that ransomware requires an end user to activate it by clicking on a link which allows a remote user to access a computer, a tablet or an entire network. Staff should be educated on questioning where emails come from and whether the sender is reliable or malicious.

Should a member of staff accidentally click through one of these emails, though, companies should be ensuring that their backup processes are completely up to date. If, for example, a member of staff within accounts and finance has their entire machine locked by ransomware and there is no backup of the data on an external hard drive or in cloud storage then the implications can be huge. If data is locked that completely halts the operations of a business then the results can be devastating.

Strong plans also need to be in place for companies that may well come

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under attack. This means having a strong cyber security response plan that clearly defines roles and responsibilities, and outlines how data can be recovered quickly in the wake of an attack. By regularly testing these plans through live drills, and updating them as needed, this will help prevent company paralysis.

It’s also key to remind staff that data security is as much their responsibility as the companies. In the eyes of the Data Protection Act individuals are also liable to action for negligence.

Cyberwarfare isn’t going to get any easier for individuals, business or government either. Teenage hackers are motivated by idealism and impressing their mates rather than money, according to a study by the National Crime Agency. In conducting the report, the NCA interviewed teenagers and some children as young as 12 as to their motives when it came to participating in hacking.

When interviewed by BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, Paul Hoare, senior manager at the NCA’s cybercrime unit, said: “They don’t understand the implications on business, government websites and individuals. Young hackers could profit from their skills if they avoid cybercrime. A lot of the skill sets these people have are hugely marketable. The world has a lack of cybersecurity and there are lucrative careers to be had, but [they] are

much harder to come by if you already have a criminal conviction.”

The report said: “Conquering the challenge, proving oneself to the group and intellectual satisfaction are more important motivations than financial gain.”

indicating that the attack may have originated in North Korea. The Ransomware deployed in this case was a programme known as Wanna Decryptor, a piece of software that can be deployed to steal money from people.

In an interview with The Guardian, teenage hacker Jake Davis, a former member of the online hacking collective Anonymous said “It was not financially motivated at all, as the NCA report says, it was mostly politically motivated. I was motivated as a teenager by the idea that this internet was this utopian space that shouldn’t be controlled or filtered or segmented or chopped up into little blocks and distributed out, and that it should be open and free, and anyone in the world should be able to use it.” Davis was arrested in 2011 aged 18 for attacking government websites.

Wanna Decryptor is a piece of malicious software that encrypts files on a user’s computer, blocking them from view and threatening to delete them unless a payment is made. The virus is able to encrypt files and block user access to them, displaying a pop-up window on-screen telling users they have been blocked and demanding payment - often via a digital currency such as Bitcoin.

Cybercrime is lucrative, it’s on the rise and it’s increasingly being used to wage proxy wars between countries avoiding physical confrontations.

There have been reports that China, North Korea and Russia all have underground dedicated hacking facilities run by the government with the sole purpose of either destabilising foreign countries or furthering their own agenda.

As this article was nearing its completion there was a largescale attack on NHS IT infrastructure using Ransomware, with intelligence sources

Hospitals across England and Wales were affected, with 48 in total reporting that they had no access to systems and GP surgeries also reported falling victim to the virus. The attack lead to a massive security operation across the UK with hospitals being forced to work with pen and paper and turning people away from A+E. In terms of small scale cybercrime affecting businesses and investors across the UK, it’s probably time to get up to date and get protected.

Much like any other form of crime, it’s unlikely that it will ever be eradicated entirely but you can vastly decrease your chances of being a victim by preparing yourself.

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THE RISE OF AMAZON Are ‘smart supermarkets’ the next big thing?

Words : Hannah Wilde | View : Jeramey Lende

Ever since their introduction into mainstream supermarkets as far back as 1992, supermarket self-checkouts were at the time seen as revolutionary: a device that allowed shoppers to scan, bag and pay for their own groceries without the need for a cashier, eliminating queues and making the entire grocery shopping process quicker and easier than it had ever been before.

But what if the next big thing takes the premise of self-checkouts and goes one step further? Well, if Amazon has its way, ‘smart supermarkets’ could one day be as commonplace in the grocery market as the fruit and vegetables on the shelves.

Amazon has turned the oft-tiresome chore of grocery shopping on its head with its newest Seattle-based grocery shop—Amazon Go—the first store of its kind which uses automation as part of the shopping experience. Adopting the tagline “No lines. No checkout. No, seriously”, the premise of Amazon’s first bricks-and-mortar store allows shoppers to put things in their basket and walk out of the store without having to wait in a queue for check-out, as all items picked up in-store will be automatically logged via a digital shopping cart on your smartphone and charged to your Amazon account as soon as you leave the premises.

As a pre-requisite for entry into the Amazon Go flagship store, all

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shoppers must first download the Amazon Go app, which will be linked to each shopper’s personal Amazon account, which then generates an individual QR code to gain access to the store. From there, Amazon’s machine-learning technology has sensors connected to every item in the store which will allow customers’ virtual shopping cart to recognise when things have been picked up off the shelves, and will also recognise when things have been put back—all of which will be reflected on the bill which is being generated in real-time. When you have selected all your items, in what Amazon calls “just walk out shopping”, you simply walk out of the store and let the app do the rest, automatically programmed to charge the payment card linked to your Amazon account, and email you a copy of your receipt for good measure too.

Across its 1,800 sqft area, Amazon’s first physical store in Seattle will contain grocery staples like bread, milk and ready meals. The store, which opened in the city on 5th December 2016, is for now exclusive to Amazon employees as a live beta-test process to iron out the kinks before its plan to open to the public, which the shopping giant assures is imminent.

Amazon is clearly very proud of its prototype, commenting: “Our checkout-free shopping experience is made possible by the same types of technologies used in self-driving cars: computer vision, sensor fusion, and deep learning”. The company also boast of Amazon Go’s selection of products on offer, ranging from “delicious ready-to-eat breakfast, lunch,

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dinner and snack options made fresh every day by our on-site chefs”, to “our chef-designed Amazon Meal Kits, with all the ingredients you need to make a meal for two in about 30 minutes”.

According to CNBC, this new store format “raises the bar in terms of automated technology by offering a grab-and-go solution that could someday be scaled to larger supermarkets”. And there you have it: Amazon’s pioneering shopping experience—which, as promised, has no lines or checkouts in sight! It certainly is an exciting premise, but for all eagle-eyed shoppers out there, you might be waiting a while for an Amazon Go store to come your way. The first ever store has been a long time coming (four years in the making after extensive research and development), and is still not ready to be rolled out to the public yet. The tentative launch date to the public was supposed to be scheduled for the end of March, but this date has come and gone, and Amazon has only offered up the vague reason of “technical difficulties” as the reason behind the delay. That said, it does look like this revolution could be coming to UK shores once the kinks are ironed out of the flagship store in Seattle—at least, that’s if Amazon registering a UK trademark for Amazon Go on the same date as Amazon’s hometown store’s official opening to Amazon workers on 5th December last year is anything to go by.

However, not everyone is happy with the new Amazon Go revolution.

President of America’s Research Group estimates that technology utilised

by Amazon Go, if it went mainstream, has the power to wipe out a huge 75% of grocery store staff: “It’ll be a big job-killer. It’ll eliminate the cashier, it’ll get rid of the baggers, it’ll eliminate the stock clerks. This could be big”.

Furthermore, naysayers are worried this could promote dishonesty and theft in a store not regulated by people who could recognise this kind of behaviour: “Solving the problem of attaching the products to the person as they leave the store is going to require something new—or something we’re not aware of today,” comments Brent Franson of Euclid Analytics.

“Tying the two together at 100 percent accuracy, that’s a problem that’s hard to solve.”

The ethics of replacing people with technology is a question for another time, but this could be just a small cost of rolling out automation on a mass scale. Even President Barack Obama in 2011 blamed automation and technological innovations for less job opportunities in the marketplace, saying: “There are some structural issues with our economy where a lot of businesses have learned to become much more efficient with a lot fewer workers”.

Innovative shopping This isn’t the first time Amazon has attempted to revolutionise the shopping experience. Amazon is responsible for some of the most innovative ways to shop online, such as ‘Amazon Prime Now’. Not content with its famed next-day service, Amazon wanted to take the online shopping experience to a whole new level, offering deliveries available within either an hour or a two-hour time-slot. This is taking online shopping to a whole new extreme, going from a tap on the app to delivery in less than 60 minutes, with the user even able to track the delivery driver in real time for good measure.

Naturally, this kind of instant service comes at a premium—£6.99 per delivery—but its next-best option, the two-hour delivery slot (between 8am-12pm) is free for all Amazon Prime members on qualifying orders above £20. Prime Now is still very much in its early stages, and at the moment is only available on everyday items like batteries, chargers, cereal, bread and paper towels amongst other day-to-day essentials. Many users are already extremely impressed with this dedication to quick service, yet if IT Pro publication is to be believed: “Prime Now looks set to revolutionise shopping in the ‘commercial laziness’ sector, but it’s got some serious hurdles to overcome first”. Some such hurdles in this revolutionary service include the relatively few items currently available for Prime Now, as well as its minimum spend, which could put off many a customer who only require a few items. That said, “once its teething problems are sorted, Prime Now looks set to drag retail kicking and screaming into the 21st century”.

The next big thing for the company is their innovative ‘Amazon Lockers’, which have made it easy to pick up and drop off packages. It’s happened to the best of us: we order something online and are waiting with bated breath for its delivery, only for it to have been redirected to the local delivery office if it won’t fit through the letterbox. Amazon Lockers put an end to this annoying idiosyncrasy which, according to its namesake

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Amazon offices, Santa Clara, United States

company, “provides you with a self-service delivery location to pick up [and drop off] your Amazon.co.uk parcels, [with] lockers currently available in a variety of locations throughout the UK”.

If you haven’t already seen the lockers out and about, they can be found in supermarkets—most often Morrisons—as well as libraries, shopping centres, fitness centres, petrol stations, and now even integrated into the London Underground. Former Mayor of London Boris Johnson, who was sitting Mayor in 2014 when the lockers were first installed, was singing the praises of this revolutionary service: “London Underground’s click and collect revolution is going from strength to strength, attracting some of the most recognisable names in retail. Amazon is a fantastic addition to a cast of top brands who are reaching out to their customers in new ways”.

These self-service kiosks (of which there were over 13,000 across the UK as of 2015) offer a three-day collection window from the date it arrives in the user’s specified location, and provides them with an email notification with a unique pickup code to release the contents of the locker (up to the dimensions of 42cm x 35cm x 32cm). Similarly the process works just as seamlessly in reverse, in which the customer prints off a returns label from the Amazon website, attaches it to an unwanted package, receives a

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unique locker code, and can deposit the parcel in the locker to return for a full refund. If the end goal of the Amazon Lockers is convenience (which it is), this unique service delivers this in spades. It’s a wonder that nobody has ever done it before.

If this isn’t enough, Amazon is also in the midst of pioneering its fleet of Prime Air drones, a fleet of airborne parcel delivery drones which Amazon predicts will one day “be as normal as seeing mail trucks on the road”, a reality in which they envision will be able to deliver packages to customers all over the world in 30 minutes or less. Digital Spy reports that Amazon’s selection of drones are akin to a “helicopter/aeroplane hybrid, topping an altitude of 100 metres and capable of hitting speeds closer to 100kph”. As expected, technology of this magnitude will take a lot longer to implement than other services in Amazon’s roster given the safety implications, but not keen to let the grass grow under its feet, Amazon already has a handful of Prime Air development centres in America, the UK, Austria and Israel, which allow the drones to be tested before they become a part of mainstream delivery.

Questions surrounding the safe delivery of a parcel in the hands of an inanimate object are natural ones, but they are also questions that

Amazon is keen to quell. In its vision of the future of online deliveries, Amazon has envisioned an Amazon-branded landing mat, which will act as a homing device to steer the package-wielding drones towards a safe landing, with the landing pad small and lightweight enough to be moved and stored away when the owners are not expecting a delivery. The other question many have is surrounding the safety of the machinery: how can it be expected to avoid a collision? Again Amazon has thought of the solution, In what they call “sense and avoid technology”, each drone will be fitted with integrated cameras and sensors, which allow it to avoid things like birds and even other drones. Thankfully the drones will not fly high enough to interrupt aeroplanes, but its integrated cameras and GPS systems should go a long way to making the drones the safest they could possibly be.

The Amazon shopping family:

Could the future of shopping in a post-Amazon Go landscape finally see the end of the infernal protestation we hear almost every day of an “unexpected item in the bagging area”? With lockers, super-fast delivery, smartphone-controlled stores and even delivery drones on the horizon, it certainly seems as if it’s not a case of if, but simply when…

> Amazon Dash - Amazon Prime customers have access to ‘Dash’ buttons which allow users to choose a product and delivery preference, so that when you are running low on the product, you push the button and it is delivered to your home in under 24 hours.

> Amazon - the free shopping service available for everyone, accessible online or using the Amazon app. > Amazon Prime - a premium extension of Amazon, offering paid users (£79 per year) the opportunity for faster one-day delivery, as well as ac cess to Amazon’s exclusive streaming services: Prime Instant Video, and Amazon Music. > Amazon Pantry - this service allows Prime members to shop for household goods and groceries which are delivered in a box for a flat fee of £2.99 for the first box, and 99p per box thereafter.

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FORWARDTHINKING FASHION The rise of wearable technology Words : Emma Martin | View : Algol

Forever obsessed with style, health and wellbeing, we are continually searching for smart ways to enhance our lives. As each commodity reaches its peak in the market, the pressure piles on for companies from Silicon Valley to Singapore to deliver innovative products that meet consumer demand and exceed their predecessors.

The fashion and digital industries are worth trillions between them, and as we race toward a progressively digital future smart designers have seen room in the market for a new breed of luxury products - wearable technology.

We’re no longer just concerned with what we wear in order to look on trend, but how the merchandise we wear can improve our lives in wide-ranging ways. From wristbands and watches to glasses and shoes, there are many ways that technology has become part of the fabric of our daily lives, enhancing productivity through personal devices.

According to consumer insight company Nielson, one in six Americans currently own a wearable tech item – and this number is only expected to grow.

CCS Insight – which chiefly provides market analysis for the mobile and wireless sectors – has predicted that the growth of the wearable technology market will soar in the immediate future. In 2016 they reported that the wearable tech market was worth US$14bn. This figure is now expected to more than double by 2020, with the total escalating to an eye-watering US$34bn.

The forecast shows that the bulk of this value will come from virtual and augmented reality, and the unprecedented rise of Google Glass and Oculus Rift is testament to this; whilst the main volume of sales come from sport trackers - unsurprising when we look at notable mainstream products to emerge in the industry such as the Apple Watch, Fitbit and Recon glasses.

Fighting fit – The data generation California-based tech company Fitbit has dominated the industry, alongside Apple, in terms of everyday wearables between 2010 and 2015, increasing their revenue from US$5m to US$1.8bn within the five year period.

Fitbit focuses on manufacturing fitness bracelets which allow us to track steps, heartbeat, and even sleeping patterns. As we place ever more stock in the importance of our health, Fitbit offers users a simple way to monitor daily targets with reminders and real-time data.

However, despite the vast success of prominent personal devices such as Fitbit, there is no doubt the seemingly inevitable convergence of fashion and technology has experienced an awkward infancy, with state-of-the-art products being shelved in their early phases. Relatively little progress has been made in the advancement of these digital accessories, and there is uncertainty amongst consumers as to their benefits.

Fitbit has recently come under media fire as a result of university studies that have shown fitness trackers do not aid weight loss, and may actually

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be doing more harm than good. Fuelled by Dr Yoshiro Hatano’s 1960s study of ‘10,000’ steps which ascertained that this should be the universal goal for daily steps in order to achieve a good calorie/exercise balance, experts are hitting out at fitness trackers and apps that fail to tailor plans to individuals and thus may be making errors in their health advice.

It has been widely reported that product abandonment is high in these devices. Not long ago, Samsung reported that the average return rate of their Galaxy Gear watch was over 30% (as surveyed by Best Buy across the US). Much like unwanted children’s toys, it would not be wrong to think that many wearers of these new products end up losing interest in these gadgets, retiring watches and wristbands to the back of the drawer after only a few weeks of use.

The foremost reason for this is that people simply get bored. The wearables currently populating the market appear to challenge users.

They fail to keep buyers engaged over time, and aren’t living up to their early promises. With a distinct lack of new updates and features, progression is slow. Products are stagnating.

Fitbit’s co-founder James Park reported in January this year that the company have experienced ‘softer-than-expected’ holiday demand for trackers, even in their most mature markets - with Black Friday being no exception.

This begs the question: has wearable technology had its day? Do we really want to wear technology as a fashion garment, or is it simply a fad?

When looking at the future of smart fashion it is important to assess key stumbling blocks and the main contributors of the ‘pick up, put down’ consumer attitude that is leaving developers with more than just a headache.

How this sector evolves will rely heavily on the reactive nature of the companies themselves. Fortune 500 companies like Apple and Samsung are no strangers to this scenario. But if they are going to beat disruptive start-ups to the buck and crack this contemporary conundrum, strengthen their hand in the market and get it right for customers, there are several roadblocks to consider.

Personalisation One key distinction between wearable technology and digital fashion comes down to design. It seems obvious, but there needs to be a genuine desire from users to actually wear the product. This is something that has been condemned by designers worldwide, who have cast doubts over the marrying of fashion and technology.

New York designer Francis Bitonti, who was responsible for the creation of a celebrated 3D dress designed for model Dita Von Teese, has commented: ‘I don’t want technologies that integrate with my body, I want clothing and accessories that makes my body do things and feel things I have never thought I was capable of.’

To truly make wearables of the future a success, it is important to think of them both as a gadget and a fashion statement. Despite their functions, we are unlikely to don wearables if they do not integrate seamlessly fashion faux-pas represent more than just teething problems in the long-term goals of the wearable market.

Google Glass technology came under scrutiny from both designers and consumers for its unnatural look. As it transpires, most people are not enamoured with the idea of wearing a camera like device strapped to their head all day. While style was not entirely to blame for Google shelving the product in 2015, it is reasonable to suggest that this could have had a considerable impact on the product’s mainstream appeal.

This has led experts to believe that the key to future product design lays in the concept of it being invisible – something companies like Hexoskin, Duoskin and OMsignal are already exploring in the form of smart fabrics.

Efficiency Google Glass When it comes to gadgets, efficiency is a top priority for users - and things are no different in the world of wearables. As it stands, most rely on being tethered to smartphones in order to access the full range of features and data results.

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Fitbit Charge HR

The big question for many comes down to whether wearable devices will ever be able to outgrow smartphones and become standalone technologies.

One of the main reasons for wanting to wear gadgets on our body is for simplicity, which means consumers shouldn’t have to rely on having their expensive smartphones on them at all times. Apple did arguably go some way to responding this by integrating phone and watch, which allows users to see who is calling and organise their diaries without having their phone handy. And yet this is one pitfall in the efficiency of wearables that buyers can’t shake off.

Power Sources Intel CFO Stacy Smith placed great importance on the issue of battery life in current technology, arguing that “if these things don’t last for a full day — not an eight-hour day, a full day — they’re not going to get significant consumer pickup.”

GPS tracking, video recording and constant data collecting is sure to drain power fast, and without the ability to use the full range of features (as well as having 24 hour metric statistics) the product quickly loses its value. Consumers don’t want spend their time worrying about where the nearest plug socket is; they want to use their technology with complete confidence.

Low power modes, wireless charging, and energy harvesting (using heat, solar, or motion) are all viable options being explored by designers to make their products as powerful, and long lasting as possible.

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Price As with all products, affordability is a key component to their popularity and success. At the moment wearables have a hefty entry price. Whilst popular fitness trackers on average cost £80-£200, other more innovative wearables come in at a far higher price tag.

The famed Google Glass is one such example, whose prototype Explorer Edition was launched in the US for a grand total of US$1,500 making it beyond reach for many and leaving a bitter taste for those who couldn’t afford to experience the new technology.

Last year research company Colloquy conducted a survey of 1,600 Americans, 63% of whom believe that devices are too expensive, showing that this is a significant concern for many.

As more complex devices are created and the amount of stock remains limited as companies test the market with prototypes, it is no wonder prices are so high. Until goods become easily manufactured and rolled out to the masses, it is likely that the newest and most cutting-edge devices will be initially reserved for high-end buyers. …so when will companies deliver?

In a 2015 interview, Fitbit’s James Park spoke about the future of the company and, more directly, the steps they will be taking to make sure they can keep up with the crowded market: “We’re definitely going to be releasing devices with advanced sensors that help people track not only more accurate metrics on what we’re doing today, but additional metrics as well. I can’t talk specifically, but things people are going to be

Apple Watch

interested in in the future are blood pressure, or stress, or more stats about their athletic performance. Those are all things that we’re working on and we’ll continue to release over time.”

There is no doubt that Fitbit has already begun to look at consumer feedback with the evolution of their new designer range which focuses more on the style aspect, along with the ‘Wear It Your Way’ tagline, introducing the feature of wearing your tracker as a necklace, stylish bracelet or watch.

Fitbit are not alone, Apple has also revealed their second generation Apple Watch which promises to be redesigned for swimmers in mind, making it completely waterproof, and special algorithms have been made to calculate calories burnt when swimming.

With key players already gearing up to defend their places in the cutting-edge market of smart fashion, there is no doubt that the future of wearable technology looks bright. Should designers take on board the early feedback from users, it seems like there are limitless ways this new type of technology can make us healthier, more informed, and entertained. It will last longer, do more, tell us more about ourselves, and ultimately look stylish.

But the question still remains of what will be the first product to break the mould and catapult smart fashion into the next era. Global Property Scene has rounded up some of the more creative ideas that are coming in the next generation:

Wearables to watch out for: 1. Skin Transfers – DuoSkin, working with Microsoft Research, is prototyping and developing On-skin User Interfaces in the shape of sleek metallic temporary tattoos made of gold leaf. These customised transfers work through touch, and are able to interact with other devices such as smartphones.

2. Vibeat – Liron Gino has created new ‘alternative sensory system’ for listening to music for those who are deaf. Vibeat translates to a smooth rope style necklace and bracelet that vibrate at different frequencies by using Bluetooth to connect to a music source. This product was developed through research with those who are deaf, including one man who works as a club DJ. 3. Tappy Smart Ring – Made public at CES 2017, the Tappy Smart Ring can link to a wearer’s bank account, making contactless payments without the need of a card. Wayne Leung, CEO and founder of the Tappy brand has promised that at least 10 big-name brands would be stocking the brand this year.

4. Snapchat Spectacles – These quirky-looking shades developed by Snap Inc. are camera equipped, and use a wide lens camera to shoot all of the action direct. Snap Inc. is causing a stir by making the glasses incredibly limited, except for those who live in Venice Beach, California who can get their very own pair from the world’s only ‘Snapbot’ Spectacle vending machine.

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

London, UK • Median sales price: US$788,014* • Average price per sqft: US$630

Note - Figures correct as of stated dates: *May 2017 --Prices based on city centre accommodation Global average house size currently stands at: 1,250m2 Source: Numbeo

Los Angeles, USA • Median sales price: US$611,640* • Average price per sqft: US$457

New York, USA The 5 fastest growing cities:

• Median sales price: US$788,579* • Average price per sqft: US$631

(Correct as of May 2017) Source: Telegraph

5.

2.

Kinshasa, Congo --Population: 11.58m Annual Growth: 4.17%

Guangzhou, China --Population: 20.6m Annual Growth: 4.66%

4.

Luanda, Angola

1.

Suzhou, China

--Population: 5.23m Annual Growth: 5.57%

3.

Surat, India --Population: 5.44m Annual Growth: 4.4%

--Population: 5.23m Annual Growth: 5.57%

Sao Paulo, Brazil • Median sales price: US$388,770* • Average price per sqft: US$319

Cape Town, South Africa • Median sales price: US$274,090* • Average price per sqft: US$229

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Singapore Moscow, Russia • Median sales price: US$633,770* • Average price per sqft: US$536

Dubai, UAE • Median sales price: US$588,385* • Average price per sqft: US$476

• Median sales price: US$2,216,257* • Average price per sqft: US$1,779

Sydney, Australia • Median sales price: US$1,342,885* • Average price per sqft: US$1,094

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WHAT’S THE ALTERNATIVE? Lithium

Words : Alex Timperley | View : Henri Koskinen

Investing in mining comes across as a particularly Industrial Revolution, ‘captain of industry’ type thing to do. People put their money into diamonds or gold all the time, but investing in the materials that are used to actually build things feels like a curiously old-fashioned pursuit.

We tend not to think about the materials which are used to construct our society or are poured into power plants to provide us with electricity, but where would we be without them? The foundations of every great technological leap forward are dug out of the earth in one way or another.

If you are interested in an alternative mining investment it pays to look at what technologies are about to take off and what they are made from.

Great examples of this principle in action are silicon and coltan which are both used widely in modern electronics for microchips and capacitors.

Early investors in these materials became very rich. Choosing a product which is soon to be a key part of something which will change the world is a good investment strategy – which brings us to lithium.

Lithium is a soft alkali metal which is silvery in colour and burns a bright crimson when exposed to a flame. It is the lightest metal and the least dense solid element as well as being extremely useful.

Despite its diminutive status as only the third heaviest element, lithium can be a true showstopper. The first artificial nuclear fission reaction was produced in 1932 and used Li-7 – the most common form of lithium – as fuel. This proved to be the first step on the road to the network of nuclear reactors which produce 11% of the world’s power today. With regards to

more visible explosions, Li-6 is processed and enriched to produce tritium which acts as fuel for certain types of thermonuclear weapons. It was also one of the three elements produced in large quantities by the Big Bang.

However, it is the more constructive, practical uses of lithium which make it an interesting alternative investment option for the future.

Lithium hydroxide is the most widely used thickening agent in industrial and automobile lubricants around the world and is also useful for propellant fuels and as an oxidiser in the lamps which are used in submarines and space capsules. Cooker tops the world over are made in part with lithium thanks to its excellent heat transferring properties, making it the material of choice for ceramic glass. Another property which lithium can lend to other metals is its lightness which makes it ideal for reducing the overall weight of the aluminium, cadmium and copper alloys, used in everything from fizzy drink cans to aeroplane bodies to electrical wiring.

Lithium is also widely used in the pharmaceuticals industry. The calming and stabilising effects which it has been observed to induce in patients make it a useful weapon when combatting bi-polar disorders in particular.

Lithium drugs were the first ones to be approved by the USA’s Food and Drug Administration to treat depression, though ingesting large quantities of lithium is not medically recommended because the human body doesn’t react well to having too much metal put in it.

All of these uses mean that the value of lithium is exploding at the same time as the value of most other metals is either stagnant or declining. This

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Lepidolite mica, the most abundant lithium-bearing mineral

rapid climb in value is likely to continue into the future thanks to the most important lithium product of them all: batteries.

Lithium-ion (Li-ion) batteries are efficient, rechargeable and commonly used in everything from mobile phones to electric cars. They are the best batteries on earth, able to last 10 times as long as traditional lead-acid batteries whilst losing charge at half the speed and being able to operate at both much higher and much lower temperatures. Much like silicon microchips, Li-ion batteries are the key component in the technologies that are growing the fastest.

The world currently produces approximately 30 GWh worth of Li-ion batteries every year which is only just enough for current demand. The industry is just about keeping pace with the growth of traditional battery markets, but that doesn’t take into account new markets which are set to massively outstrip current production. The headline-grabbing example is the upcoming wave of electric vehicles which are set to reshape the transport industry.

Within the automobile world, Tesla is the best example of how both the mining and production of lithium will be forced to increase rapidly. Elon Musk’s car company is in the process of building its Gigafactory in

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Nevada, USA to create batteries which will service its fleet of electric cars.

As more and more cars roll off the production line each year, more batteries will be needed to power them. So many in fact that the Gigafactory will single-handedly double the world’s production of Li-ion batteries – and that is just one car company. Almost every other car company in the world is also shifting over to electric battery-operated vehicles.

And it is not just the car industry that is changing. The world’s energy grid is slowly being converted to renewable energy and, crucially, storage.

One of the main issues with power generation is matching supply to demand, especially around peak times where fluctuations occur. This leads to a lot of wastage as power stations sit idle just in case there is a sudden spike. The growing prominence of large-scale battery production is one of the ways in which the world is getting smarter when it comes to energy supply. Huge battery farms are being installed across the world, in places as far apart as Hawaii and Australia, in order to prove that storage is a viable option. When it inevitably takes off, the worldwide need for Li-ion batteries will hit brand new heights.

The Tesla Gigafactory is all well and good, but over the coming decades there will need to be Gigafactory sized instalments across the world to

keep up with demand. There will also need to be a concurrent expansion of worldwide lithium mining and processing to provide the raw fuel for this.

batteries which are revolutionising both the automobile market and the worldwide energy grid over the next decade.

Global production is currently around 40,00 tonnes per year, and the United States Geological Survey estimates that the world holds enough easily-mineable lithium for more than another 350 years at current rates.

Obviously this estimate will shrink as lithium production picks up pace, but there is a lot out there waiting to be dug up and processed.

In addition, Li-ion batteries have all the hallmarks of a technology which will grow exponentially. Once the benefits are clear for everyone to see, lithium will become one of the world’s most in demand products over a very short space of time as everyone races to build battery production facilities to meet demand when they see the benefits on offer.

The estimated 13.5 million tonnes of lithium worldwide is not spread out evenly. Chile is estimated to be home to more than 50% of global supply, with China and Australia holding a further 35% between them. Despite this, Australia was the world’s largest producer of lithium until very recently, with Chile lagging behind thanks to the different extraction techniques. Australian lithium tends to come from hard rock mines which are more easily accessible than the Chilean brine pools. However, advances in techniques to extract lithium from brine pools have seen Chile become the world leader in short order.

Despite having more than 350 years’ worth of known lithium supply in the world, we are likely to hit ‘peak lithium’ a lot sooner thanks to the predicted growth curve. Lithium is not currently traded as a commodity or a futures stock, trading instead purely based on supply and demand, which makes it a potentially good bet for long term cash investors.

Whether you look to invest in the massive mining operations present in Chile or Australia, or you are looking at smaller local operations like the proposed lithium mine in Cornwall, UK, investing in this versatile metal is probably best done now rather than in ten years’ time.

This is the information that you should keep in mind when considering lithium as an alternative investment. The world market is currently meeting demand, but demand is about to explode thanks to advances in Li-ion

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Have you considered selling your investment property?

An increase in house prices means the value of your property may have grown substantially

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www.intusresidential.com

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Architecture Planning Structures Urban Design

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

Words : Samantha Jones

Q.

Q.

I am just about to purchase my first off-plan property and as part of the contract I must buy a furniture pack. I have several buy-to-let properties and have always furnished them myself. Why is this a requirement?

I am purchasing a property in the UK but reside in Qatar. This is my first purchase outside of the UAE and I am slightly concerned by the fact that I won’t be able to physically visit the site to ensure that it is being built. Also, do I need to visit the UK to complete the legal process and purchase?

A. It sounds like the property you are purchasing will be fully managed, in which case the furniture pack is usually compulsory. In order to ensure the highest rents possible across the entire development, the management company needs to ensure that all apartments are furnished to an equally high standard.

Payment for furniture packs is usually spread out over the course of the payment plan.

A. The UK property market is extremely popular with overseas investors, many of whom have never stepped foot in the country. Any reputable company will ensure that you are sent regular updates regarding the construction of the property, including photographs and/or drone footage of the ongoing construction activity.

Regarding the purchase process, as long as you keep in constant communication with both the company you have bought the property through and your solicitor, then you should be able to complete all paperwork electronically. You also don’t need to have a UK bank account to make the payments from, as you can wire the funds electronically.

A hard copy of all documents may be required upon completion, but these can be printed off and sent by post or courier.

*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 Gather Digital is a full-service digital agency, based in the United Kingdom.

--Paul Clegg – Technical Director at Gather

Words : Will Leyland

Q.

Q.

Briefly, can you explain what augmented reality is?

In terms of property, where do you see augmented reality playing a part going forward?

A. Augmented Reality (AR) is an indirect view of the world around us, with computer-generated information added – this is typically done using a device such as a mobile phone or a camera with a display. AR can be as advanced as a high-definition 3D character interacting with the physical world, or as simply a set of statistics, like what you might see during Formula 1 when they switch to a point-of-view camera on a car.

Q.

A. Back in 2010 I wrote a dissertation for a platform that was ahead of its time. Entitled “A location-based service for architectural demonstration, using Augmented Reality”, it provided a service for architects to place Google Sketchup models in the real world, and then view them using AR on a mobile phone.

I can see something like this being used in the near future, for new-builds, and planning applications in local authorities.

Why has augmented reality become so popular?

A. Ten years ago there wasn’t as much computing power readily available.

The release of smartphones, small devices packed with sensors and powerful processors has made the technology for AR much more accessible.

Q. What potential applications does augmented reality have?

A. You name the industry, and there’s probably an application for it somewhere, or at least the computer vision technology behind it.

Anywhere manual labour is required can be enhanced by AR.

Q. What is the coolest thing that you’ve seen augmented reality do?

A. In the medical field, Augmented Reality-assisted surgery.

Q. Where do you see augmented reality going in the immediate and long term future?

A. Both Augmented Reality and virtual reality use similar computer vision techniques, so I can see a blur between these two evolving technologies.

Long-term, humans will continue to use technology increasingly more fluently so I can see AR becoming part of the norm. I certainly wouldn’t turn down a heads-up display for life!

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SHOULD I MOVE TO EINDHOVEN? Words : Alex Timperley | View : Alex Tihonovs

Eindhoven is the fifth largest city in the Netherlands and can be found in the province of North Brabant, south of Amsterdam and north of Belgium.

More than 225,000 people live in the city and more than two million in the wider Eindhoven area.

The city is not one of the main tourist destinations which come to mind when you think of the Netherlands, but this relative obscurity certainly works in the city’s favour. Eindhoven has all the benefits of being an interesting modern city but none of the downsides of the hordes of tourists who descend on cities such as Barcelona, London or Rome.

Eindhoven’s story is similar in many ways to the story of dozens of other cities across Northern Europe. It was originally given city rights in 1232 by Henry I, Duke of Brabant as part of an extensive town planning process he was spearheading across the county. At the time Eindhoven was made up of fewer than 170 houses surrounded by a small rampart and a castle just outside the walls. It grew slowly over the centuries, eventually morphing into a notable trade stop between Holland and Liège where tobacco and textile industries made a home.

The slow growth of the city and the strengthening of its fortifications throughout the 14th century did not stop several disasters befalling Eindhoven. The city was plundered and burned so thoroughly between 1413 and 1420 by invaders from Guelders, a nearby province in the Low Countries, that no more than six houses remained standing. Eindhoven was fully rebuilt by 1502, but unfortunately was invaded and defeated again in 1543 and then 75% of its houses were once again destroyed in 1554, this time by a fire. Its city walls were finally demolished by Spanish invaders in 1583 and Eindhoven remained quiet after that for a long time.

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The Industrial Revolution which kicked off in 19th century Britain proved to be the spark that Eindhoven needed to become something more than a provincial city with a trade route running through it and a large marketplace. Much like other major cities across Europe such as Manchester, Lyon and Dortmund, Eindhoven would be transformed in only a few decades.

A brand-new network of canals, railways and roads was constructed to give Eindhoven a new lease of life and turn it into a first class industrial city. The growth of electronics giant Philips has come to symbolise the rapid growth of Eindhoven. Philips was founded in the city in 1891 as a lightbulb manufacturer and would continue to be headquartered there until 1997. The population of Eindhoven grew by 1000% over this period and became known as the ‘City of Light’ thanks to Philips and other companies like it. The influence of these companies on the city persists to this day with a third of all the money invested into research and development in the Netherlands being spent in the Eindhoven technology sector.

The original founders of Philips are understandably incredibly popular figures in Eindhoven and today there are parks, theatres and streets named after the family which helped to build the city into what it is today.

In addition to the burgeoning electronics industry, Eindhoven also became a significant centre for car and truck manufacturing. DAF Trucks was founded in the city in 1928 and is still headquartered there today, having grown from a small car repair workshop in a brewery, into a manufacturer which makes trucks for people and militaries around the world.

Saint Catherina Church, Eindhoven

Old Philips factory building, Eindhoven

Between the rise of industry and the destruction visited upon the city in World War II, very little is left of the old city today. The transformation of Eindhoven from a provincial market town into a modern city has been emphatic over the years, inhabited by people who looked forward and built for themselves a modernist city which is focused on beautiful design and technological prowess. Eindhoven’s final transformation from medieval marketplace to modern powerhouse was complete in the 1970s when the textile, tobacco and matchmaking industries finally disappeared from the city and took the last traces of its past along with them.

But this is not to give the impression that Eindhoven is some sort of austere industrial city lacking in beauty or soul. On the contrary, the fact that its industries gathered together so many designers and engineers in one place led to the city becoming something of a creative and artistic hub.

The Van Abbemuseum was one of the first museums for contemporary art to be established in Europe and today boasts a collection of more than 2,700 works and collections from artists as influential as Lissitzky, Picasso

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and Chagall. The museum’s focus is the role of art in an open society and it challenges visitors to think about how art can reflect the world as well as acting as a cultural ‘memory’ for Eindhoven. The nearby Gallerie Pennings specialises in fine art photography as opposed to being a more general gallery, but it has a similar focus on emphasising the importance of art in our society and considering the impact art can have on people. Likewise, the Designhuis presents design in a museum-like setting to explore how good or unusual design can affect people’s lives from day to day.

If you are more interested in spending time outdoors, Eindhoven is one of the greenest and most attractive cities in Europe, with so many green spots and hidden places that people looking to relax and enjoy the natural world need not leave the city. Whether you prefer the riverside walks of the Dommeldal, the swimming and leisure activities on offer at the Genneper Parks or even the 12 hectares of fruit orchards which make up the Philips Fruittin just outside the city centre, Eindhoven has you covered. There is even a ‘biological farm’ called Genneper Hoeve in the middle of the city where cows, pigs and chickens roam around freely to offer visitors the experience of seeing how a traditional farmer from the

area takes care of his animals, fields and gardens.

Eindhoven is also a famous sport city, home to the world-famous PSV Eindhoven. Founded in 1913 as a team for Philips employees, PSV have written their name and iconic red and white striped kit into the Netherlands’ football history as one of the ‘big three’ teams to dominate the Dutch football league, as well as achieving success abroad. PSV regularly welcome Europe’s biggest and best clubs to the city and are a great source of pride to residents. The fans have nicknamed themselves ‘the peasants’ as a tribute to the city’s agricultural past.

Eindhoven is a city which has taken its agricultural and industrial heritage and integrated them perfectly to create a successful modern city. It has something for everyone and has a lot to offer visitors and residents.

Whether you are interested in the great variety of artistic sights on offer, you want to enjoy a city which values its natural spaces or you are looking for a more active lifestyle which involves shopping or sports, Eindhoven might just be the place for you.

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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 29 pages you will see a selection of the investment opportunities available through Knight Knox.

+44(0)161 772 1370 www.knightknox.com

GRAPNEL APARTMENTS Salford Quays PRICES FROM :

£134,995 272 luxury apartments Phase 3 of Fortis Quay Great central location Within easy walking distance of MediaCityUK High rental demand in the area

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​ rapnel Apartments is the third phase of Fortis Quay, a G flagship new development overlooking Salford Quays which will create the perfect modern ‘village’ environment for tenants.

The 272 large apartments and townhouses which are contained within Grapnel Apartments are designed to appeal to the severely oversubscribed Salford Quays rental market.

NEW LAUNCH

X1 MEDIA CITY TOWER 4 Salford Quays PRICES FROM :

£124,950 Studios, 1 and 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 fourth and final 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.

X1 THE LANDMARK Salford PRICES FROM :

£130,000 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 Greater 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.

X1 THE CAMPUS Salford PRICES FROM :

ÂŁ89,995 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 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.

THE TOWER AT X1 THE QUARTER Liverpool PRICES FROM :

ÂŁ89,995 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.

DE VELOPMENT

««««« BEST RESIDENTIAL DEVELOPMENT MERSEYSIDE X1 The Quarter

by X1 Developments

SILKHOUSE COURT Liverpool PRICES FROM :

ÂŁ99,995 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 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 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.

NOW SOLD OUT

BARREL YARD Manchester PRICES FROM :

ÂŁ130,000 1, 2, 3 & 4-bed apartments and townhouses Lettings and management company in place Short distance to Manchester city centre Built by an experienced developer Great transport links

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Barrel Yard is located in South Manchester, just minutes away from the exciting city centre. The development benefits from local public transport as well as being a short drive from the city centre, where residents can enjoy all the retail, recreation and cultural amenities that Manchester has to offer.

Furthermore, trendy local areas such as Chorlton and Didsbury are only a short drive away from Barrel Yard.

NOW SOLD OUT

BRIDGEWATER GATE Manchester PRICES FROM :

ÂŁ114,995 Local rental market is booming Private communal area Great transport links Built by an experienced developer On-site lettings and management company

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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

X1 AIRE Leeds PRICES FROM :

ÂŁ105,000 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 latest 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 will 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 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 now sold out.

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 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.

COMPLETED AND TENANTED

THE COURTYARD AT X1 THE QUARTER Liverpool PRICES FROM :

ÂŁ89,950 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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NOW SOLD OUT

MULBERRY PLACE Salford PRICES FROM :

£109,000 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.

COMPLETED AND TENANTED

THE TERRACE AT X1 THE QUARTER Liverpool PRICES FROM :

ÂŁ109,950 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. All four phases (including The Gallery, The Courtyard and The Studios) are completed and tenanted, with the fifth phase, The Tower, currently 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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COMPLETED AND TENANTED

BELLS COURT Sheffield PRICES FROM :

ÂŁ69,995 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

INVEST IN UK BUY-TO-LET New-build buy-to-let Studios, 1, 2 & 3-bed apartments available Management companies in place In prime locations across Manchester, Liverpool and Leeds

APARTMENTS FROM £89,995

Contact Us:

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