Recently, a friend called me (let’s call him James) and said that he was coming to Thika road and that I should go and help him check out an apartment that was on sale. I went and found him looking all excited that he had found what he had been looking for. An affordable apartment in a block of 3 floors is located in a master planned estate with the following features; many green spaces complete with...
In the spring of 1822 an employee in one of the world’s first offices – that of the East India Company in London – sat down to write a letter to a friend. If the man was excited to be working in a building that was revolutionary, or thrilled to be part of a novel institution which would transform the world in the centuries that followed, he showed little sign of it. “You don’t know how wearisome...
If you own a home, you’ve probably been sold on the benefits of a shorter mortgage or heard it’s wise to pay more than the minimum so you can pay it off sooner. I was actually exposed to this idea before I owned a home, in my high school math class, when our teacher espoused the virtues of a shorter mortgage. I rushed home and breathlessly asked my mom, “Mom, do we have a 15 year mortgage? If...
What is valuation? The valuation of property has long been characterised as both an art and a science: an art because of the need to make value judgments concerning the intangible features that attract certain buyers; a science because it is possible to establish trends and analyse how these are interpreted by buyers and sellers, including the value placed on particular property...
When I wrote an article a few months ago about how to protect against colossal loss in a strange investment environment, little did I know that a major sell-off was just around the corner. My argument was based solely on the combination of very optimistic market prices and general investor complacency about risk. These factors argued for guarding your wealth against unforeseen negative outcomes. My...
With global stock markets tanking and coronavirus cases rising rapidly in Asia, Europe and North America, politicians around the world are racing to unveil emergency measures to help the economy weather the storm. In Italy, where the entire population of 65 million has been under lockdown since early this week, the country’s finance minister has announced a policy that has earned some attention:...
Mortgage-backed securities, are shares of a home loan sold to investors. Ordinarily, a bank or mortgage financier lends money to an individual to buy a home and collects monthly payments on the loan. Such loans, can be pooled together into a single security and sold to a larger bank at a commission. The larger bank then issues bonds on this security to investors who buy them and collect dividends,...
Economies can suffer both sudden crashes and chronic diseases. Housing markets in the rich world have caused both types of problem. A trillion dollars of dud mortgages blew up the financial system in 2007-08. But just as pernicious is the creeping dysfunction that housing has created over decades: vibrant cities without space to grow; ageing homeowners sitting in half-empty homes who are keen to protect...
The American mall is a dead and dying creature, its demise chronicled in photos that fill up entire websites and books. Not all malls, however, have to end up so sad and empty. When the shoppers are gone, these are still colossal pieces of infrastructure that can be repurposed, as medical complexes and churches and apartments and more. In some cases, the shops and food courts are completely...
The Arcade Providence. Ben Jacobsen/Northeast Collaborative Architects Providence, Rhode Island has a hot new development in an elegant old building. When it was built 188 years ago, the Arcade Providence was America's first shopping mall, hosting boutiques on all three floors. Now those shops have been transformed into 48 tiny apartments and a mix of businesses, including restaurants, a...