Global Property Scene

GLOBAL

PROPERTY SCENE ISSUE NO. 016

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

This issue: Megacities: the solution to over-population? | A guide to controversial architecture Crossrail, how could it affect property? | Should I move to Edinburgh?

FOCUS ON : INDONESIA

BASELWORLD EVENT REVIEW

COULD BREXIT BE THE MAKING OF THE UK PROPERTY MARKET?

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INSIDE Features

18 Northern Ireland’s troubled past

38 Tesla & SolarCity, delivering the future

47 London’s future connection

64 Controversial architecture

The diplomatic failure by both British and Irish governments to overcome the troubles lasted for over 40 years. The British relationship with Ireland and Northern Ireland had reached breaking point as recently as 15 years earlier, and yet, the British head of state was set to arrive on a tour of Ireland and Northern Ireland.

Tesla and SolarCity represent an attempt to save the planet by Elon Musk and his band of inventors and engineers based in California, USA. Both companies were founded with the goal of mass market advancement of electric cars and renewable energy usage, which they hope will lead us towards a sustainable future.

The new Elizabeth line, planned to open in December 2018, stretching over 118 kilometres (72 miles) of railway line and costing £14.8 billion, ‘Crossrail’ as it is known, is one of Europe’s largest and most expensive pieces of new 21st century infrastructure.

Buildings are never just buildings.

They are (or rather, should be) a meticulously considered and constructed art form—as artists create their art on canvases or sculptors hone their craft on a block of marble, architects create their masterpieces on landscapes, turning the ordinary into the extraordinary.

Regular Articles

Listings (sponsored)

09 Market in Focus: Indonesia

90 UK

INVESTING IN THE UK

As the world’s fourth most populous country with hundreds of languages spoken over a chain of around 17,500 islands, Indonesia is an incredibly diverse nation rich in art and culture.

86 Should I move to Edinburgh?

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There’s a lot that can be said about Scotland’s capital (and arguably most famous) city.

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

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

ISSUE 016 GLOBAL

PROPERTY SCENE ISSUE NO. 016

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

This issue: Megacities: the solution to over-population? | A guide to controversial architecture Crossrail, how could it affect property? | Should I move to Edinburgh?

FOCUS ON : INDONESIA

BASELWORLD EVENT REVIEW

COULD BREXIT BE THE MAKING OF THE UK PROPERTY MARKET?

EDITOR’S NOTE As the global property markets continue to grow, we’re finding that more investors see the real value of buy-to-let. With the pound’s value rapidly declining, many predicted the UK would flounder even before the triggering of Article 50; a process which is likely to elicit a wrath of tough European trading conditions. Yet this decline has opened-up the UK to a whole host of new investors, keen to make the most of the desirable exchange rates.

With an incredibly strong rental market, enabled by a lack of available homes, growing demand and explosive house price growth, Britain continues to stand as one of the world’s premier buy-to-let hotspots. With overseas investment continuing to grow, we look at the best cities to invest in.

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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

The UK continues to invest billions of pounds into infrastructure, as the government looks to build a strong investment case for an independent UK. One of the largest current investments is Crossrail, a route which aims to boost passenger numbers and reduce travel times across the capital.

Estimates claim Crossrail will bring in roughly £1.97 for every £1 spent on the network. The ability to reduce journey times, reduce congestion and the ability to reach London more comfortably should, it is argued, bring in more jobs and investment to the city. With the network close to completion, we discuss how the route may affect city centre house prices.

Tesla and SolarCity are both companies familiar with investing in the future. The two companies completed a US$2.6bn merger in November 2016, making the combined company a true giant in the world of sustainability. With pressure mounting as Tesla look to launch their first car for the masses, and SolarCity introducing its revolutionary solar roof tiles, we have an in-depth look at these extraordinary companies.

And finally, we consider some of the most controversial pieces of architecture from across the world—some with ill-chosen or tasteless design, some whose design has rendered its use ineffective, and some which were built regardless of need and vehement public objections.

Thank you for picking up the latest edition, we hope you enjoy number 16.

Editor-in-chief Michael Smith

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CLIMATE CHANGE ...

Alex Timperley

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ARE WE CHANGING OUR CLIMATE? --Yes, the climate is changing rapidly due to human activity. The Earth’s climate has changed throughout history – think of the various swings from maximum ice age to tropical paradise and back again – but it has become increasingly clear that the natural variations seen across history have been overtaken by a human-induced warming phase.

Carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere remained below 300 parts per million (ppm) for centuries before the advent of human industrial society. Now the measurement sits at approximately 400 ppm according to NASA, and is rising at an unusually fast rate which is warming the Earth.

The Sun radiates heat over the Earth, and a certain amount of that is reflected straight back out which helps keep the Earth at a reasonable temperature.

Gases such as carbon dioxide – the ‘greenhouse gases’ – absorb this sunlight as it tries to escape the atmosphere and re-emit it in all directions, including back down at the Earth.

This creates the greenhouse effect which warms the planet and, without it, the world would be approximately 30% colder. However, it is possible to have too much of a good thing!

IS IT A PROBLEM IF THE EARTH WARMS UP? --It is most definitely a problem if the Earth warms up too much. A certain amount of warming is to be expected, and is factored into the planet’s ecosystems, flora and fauna. After all, we are currently in a minimal ice age with vast polar expanses, but the geological record shows us other eras where there was no ice and the Earth was a tropical paradise. For instance, the triceratops, a dinosaur from the Cretaceous period, would not recognise the climate we currently live in and could not survive in it.

So no, the Earth warming is not a problem in and of itself, but the pace at which it is happening is a serious danger. Even the much-heralded “global warming pause” we have apparently seen in recent years is not really a pause, it is just that the temperature has been rising at a slightly slower rate than before.

When the Earth warms more quickly than ecosystems can cope with, disaster follows. The most attention-grabbing headlines concern the melting of the polar ice caps and the shrinking glaciers which can be found in the cold places of the world. Huge quantities of meltwater are entering our oceans at the same time and changing them to the detriment of the aquatic life that lives there. Rising sea levels are also beginning to seriously affect coastlines from Florida to Bangladesh, and this threatens human lives.

At the other end of the scale, regions closer to the Equator are falling victim to desertification. Deserts in Africa and Asia are growing, and areas such as the South of Spain are set to become brand new deserts by the end of the 21st century. The cost to nature is already extreme, and the cost to human society is set to be equally as bad over the next century – unless we do something about it.

SO, WHAT CAN WE DO? --The most obvious thing we can do is stop burning fossil fuels as soon as possible in order to limit the greenhouse effect. We should leave it all in the ground, and instead convert our society into one which relies wholly on renewable energy.

The case for this is both simple and overwhelming.

Fossil fuels will, at some point, run out – this is an indisputable fact which everyone agrees on. When that happens, we will have to rely on renewable energy sources whether we like it or not. Does it not make sense to make the transition now while it is possible to do so without also having to deal with the collapse of civilisation at the same time?

Luckily, lots of smart and inventive people from around the world are already working towards this end. Solar panels are getting more efficient and wind turbines are getting larger. Tidal lagoon technology is being developed and nuclear power stations are always being made safer and more efficient. There are myriad of ways we can harness the forces of nature to produce the power we need, and all it would take is the willpower and money we apply to finding new sources of oil to be dedicated to installing renewable technology instead.

The Paris Agreement, signed in April 2016, was a worldwide effort to avoid dangerous climate change and limit global warming to less than a 2 degrees Celsius increase. However, it is often difficult to make governments listen to the better angels of their nature and follow through on these promises, and it is imperative that we continue to support legal efforts to do so.

The rise of climate litigation has a chance to tip the balance. Court is a very important place in which we can protect our environment, as recent rulings have shown. Two great examples are the blocked expansion of Vienna’s international airport and the failed attempt to build a new coal fired power station in Thabametsi, South Africa, without regard for the environmental consequences. Both went to their respective legal authorities, both were stopped in their tracks.

Overall we are very far from being out of options. The proliferation of renewable technology should warm the heart and inspire us onto greater things, and it is imperative that we act now and take decisive action on this issue as a society.

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MARKET IN FOCUS Indonesia

Words : Andrea Wong | View : A Hie

As the world’s fourth most populous country with hundreds of languages spoken over a chain of around 17,500 islands that bridge the continents of Asia and Australia, Indonesia is an incredibly diverse nation rich in art and culture. Modern day life is influenced by religious ideals and age-old traditions, originating from the time of early migrants. Western ideas are largely present in society too, brought by Portuguese traders and Dutch colonists.

Comprising thousands of islands, only around 6,000 of these are inhabited with the capital city, Jakarta, being at the heart of the economic growth, rich culture and political power. The bustling city is a huge metropolitan area home to almost 10 million citizens, capturing the true essence of a large, modern city with impressive skyscrapers, luxury complexes and trendy residences in the centre of the city. Nestled away from the modernised cityscape lies the old town, Kota, where streets are filled with colonial and cultural influences; an accurate historical snapshot of Indonesia before the skyscrapers moved in.

The lively city has proven itself as a gateway for tourists to travel to other destinations within the archipelagic islands. Indonesia attracts people around the world due to its diverse landscape with white beaches, tropical rainforests, smoking volcanoes and contoured rice fields only being a select few remarkable natural settings that the nation boasts of.

The struggle for religious freedom Indonesia has the largest Muslim population in the world, with 88% of

people identifying themselves as part of this religious group. Islamic values are imbedded within the nation’s political system, with President Jokowi publicising his commitment to the Islamic faith during his presidential campaign by making visits to Islamic boarding schools within Tasikmalaya. This gesture helped him win over a large Muslim population during his campaign.

Across the archipelagic nation, Indonesian nationals are obliged to choose to be a part of one of the recognised religions selected by the government. These are Islam, Christianity, Catholicism, Hinduism, Buddhism and Confucianism. By only acknowledging these religious groups, it poses a threat to religious freedom within Indonesia with minority religious groups often victimised by Islamic militants.

Indonesia has made the headlines recently, exposing the flaws within the current democracy and questioning just how tolerant Indonesia really is as a nation. Members of the minority group Gafatar were evacuated following ongoing sectarian violence, whilst Indonesian authorities required evacuees to take part in a re-education programme in which they were expected to acquire a better understanding of the ‘real Islam’.

Despite legislation proposed to protect religious groups in 2015, a spokesperson for the Indonesian religious freedom group, Setara Institute, did not regard the law as an effective measure with it only seemingly favouring larger religious groups, whilst minority groups face ‘religious persecution’. To support this claim, 194 incidents of violent attacks on religious minorities were reported in the first 11 months of 2015, equalling the number of cases in all of 2014.

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Pura Ulun Danu temple on a lake Bratan, Bali

Part of the issue, it seems, is that police are prioritising the need to preserve stability before religious freedom and helping the minority groups could cause conflict within Indonesia to escalate further. According to a report, 16 cases of religious intolerance in 2016 were ignored by the police, shedding light over Joko Widodo’s failure to deliver his promise of religious freedom.

In 2014, Widodo reassured Indonesia over his intentions to tackle the issue of human rights which his predecessors failed to do. He used democracy and political freedom as a scapegoat for the rise of extreme minority groups, however, and the foundations of the Indonesian legal system may need to be readdressed as it essentially perpetrates discrimination against religious minorities.

Suharto’s legacy lives on...

To say that Indonesia has a complex history is no indication of what the native Indonesian people went through as a result of drastic political transition and decision-making. It is important to revisit the time of Suharto to see how far Indonesia really has transformed as a nation. The era of Suharto’s presidency signifies a time of corruption, repression and violence, but it also cements a place in Indonesia’s past which saw stability and calmness. The historical period has left its mark on Indonesia, as some aspects of Suharto’s repressive principles still exist beneath the democratic exterior of society.

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Suharto is at the heart of Indonesia’s controversial political history, presiding over three decades in office. Whilst his resignation in May 1998 was met by resentment and hostility from the public due to his constructed corrupt and brutal regime in which he monopolised power, it would be biased not to acknowledge his achievements. He succeeded in bringing unprecedented economic growth, which vastly improved health, education and overall living standards. His 31 years served in office witnessed very little political unrest and at the same time, he managed to maintain economic stability throughout the era. If Suharto had left his position much earlier before the economy collapse, perhaps he would have been credited even more so for his accomplishments.

Victims of the oppressive regime included opposing politicians and suspected communists, with many citizens mutilated and murdered.

Although it is uncertain how big his role was in delegating his military and security forces, Suharto was responsible for the mass killing of over 500,000 during his reign, particularly at the beginning of his dictatorship where he eliminated the Indonesian Communist Party. Lacking in compassion towards his citizens, he built a political system based on terror, whilst eradicating any hope of a democratic society. He ignored appeals for human rights, still a largely unresolved issue today in Indonesia, whilst freedom of speech was also incredibly limited.

Transitioning from such a structured dictatorship to a democratic society was an impossible task to solve overnight. Despite coming to the end of a repressive and violent era, post-Suharto Indonesia suddenly seemed a lot less rosy, especially with the aftermath of the 1997 Asian Financial Crisis

to deal with. The calm and masked exterior that Suharto brought to the nation for so long was suddenly diminished, leaving the country in turmoil with a fresh concern of instability that felt unfamiliar after Suharto’s strict 31 years in office.

Further to this, his failure to create a democratic system to facilitate the handover of power plunged Indonesia into years of attempted recovery. It took a while to strengthen the weak government and tackle the ongoing economic crisis that the nation was facing.

Joko Widodo – the seventh president of Indonesia Indonesian inhabitants range from rural hunter-gatherers to modern urban elites and the political history mirrors a similar divide. The likes of Suharto and the first President Sukarno both rose to power due to their military elitism, with Suharto notably serving in office for such a lengthy period.

The current President, slum-born Joko Widodo, is the first leader to come from a background outside of the narrow political and military elite.

Widodo’s good intentions were shown in his presidential campaign with his overwhelming desire to stamp out corruption and intolerance whilst implementing progressive policies of free healthcare and education.

However, critics were not convinced by his lack of political experience and, a few years on, concerns are still raised over Widodo’s capabilities with his delay in putting things into action. With the ever-growing threat of potential terrorist attacks from Islamic military groups, it is alarming that

Widodo does not even have a counterterrorism policy in place.

Natural disasters Besides numerous terrorist attacks targeting crowded and public areas in the last decade, another risk constantly affecting Indonesia is its own natural setup. The country is situated on the Pacific Ring of Fire, where tectonic plates are the most active on the planet, which makes it prone to earthquakes and volcanic eruptions.

Indonesia has unfortunately been hit with some of the worst natural disasters on record such as the Indian Ocean tsunami back in 2004. It registered an astonishing 9.1 magnitude earthquake which claimed more than 230,000 lives. Not only does it endanger thousands of innocent people, it has the potential to jeopardise important sectors that contribute to Indonesia’s growth.

This year, Indonesia has been blighted by heavy rain and flooding whilst continually carrying the threat of landslides. February 2017 has already witnessed large parts of the country being affected by the torrential rain, with Cipinang Melayu to the East of Jakarta recording water levels as high as 150cm and a Bali village landslide killing 12 innocent civilians.

Besides logistics being affected, disturbing harvests could mean that the supply-side can also have negative consequences – although the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) has declined in the agriculture sector in the

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last few decades, it still remains a large contribution towards Indonesia’s economic growth.

Main sources of economic growth Once a nation that was reliant on agriculture as the main source of economic revenue, the last few decades has seen a better balance, with the service and industry sectors giving the economy a much-needed boost. Its abundant fertile soils have seen impressive profits from the agriculture industry in the past. However, its declining contribution to economic growth has paved the way for other sectors to take advantage, changing the outlook of modern day Indonesia.

Whilst mining has always been a key sub-sector of industry, towards the end of the Asian financial crisis when commodity prices were on the rise, the sector grew more than ever before. Today, Indonesia is one of the largest producers of coal, with China, South Korea and India amongst its biggest customers.

Growth in the tourism sector Another sector that supports economic growth in Indonesia is the growing interest in travel in the South-Eastern Asian country. Although having significantly lower rates of tourism compared to neighbouring countries Malaysia and Singapore, the nation has attracted millions of foreign tourists especially in the last few years, which has in turn supported the economic growth in Indonesia.

Widodo has set out to increase tourism in order to increase opportunities for work. A report published by World Travel & Tourism Council Indonesia states that 3.3 million jobs were created from this sector in 2014 with this expected to grow by 1.4% per annum over the next ten years.

Property market The property market has seen impressive gross rental yields, with higherend apartments offering landlords an average yield of between 8.6% to 9.6%, according to 2016 reports from the Global Property Guide. Due to an economic slowdown in 2015, Joko Widodo encouraged foreign investors to dip into the property market in an attempt to boost the economy. He signed a regulation that would allow expats residing in the country to purchase properties for up to 80 years, although it involves complex legalities and high transaction costs. The question is, will foreign investors finally be swayed by the Indonesian property market and its high yields?

A spokesperson from Knight Frank revealed that the Indonesian property market in 2016 ‘entered a mature and consolidation phase due to global and economic conditions’. This year, the market is expected to recover with long-term confidence as the population is growing and the political situation becomes more stable. With a new infrastructure budget and major plans to improve existing infrastructure, it will surely boost consumer confidence and optimism over the next few years.

What is next for Indonesia?

The future of Indonesia seems uncertain in some ways, with the country caught between prioritising religious freedom and economic stability. Joko Widodo’s reimplementation of the death penalty on a widespread basis against convicted drug traffickers has dampened hope of readdressing human rights in the near future. After two years in presidency, economic growth was struggling to reach 5% in the first quarter, in the face of promises that the country would see growth rates of 7%. It still remains to be seen whether Widodo’s can-do attitude will ultimately translate into economic reforms and bold decision-making.

However, as Indonesia looks to invest in much-needed infrastructure improvements such as transport links and road developments, economic growth will certainly speed up, and the nation will continue to become a much more accessible nation. One thing is for sure: The future is bright, with suggestions that it will be the fastest growing South East Asian economy up to 2024 according to JLL reports. The economy in Indonesia is improving and impressively so, with growth accelerating to 5.02% in the last year.

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INDONESIA FACT --Area: 1,904,569 km2 Population: 255,461,700 Per capita: $11,633

Jakarta City, Indonesia

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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.

Want to read more? www.globalpropertyscene.com

February 6th 2017 Uncovered: The true extent of the UK’s supply crisis We’ve heard it many times before—most major UK news outlets in the past decade have periodically reported the significant lack of house-building, the dwindling housing supply and the rising demand for housing across the entire nation.

There are countless statistics that prove this. The UK needs around 300,000 new houses per year to satiate demand according to The Telegraph, yet could only build less than half of this figure (142,890) in 2014/15. House prices have reached a record high (£581,825 in London, £217,928 nationwide) as prices reflect the unsustainable demand. There are more than 10 people interested in each and every property that comes onto the market. Over 1.54 million people have been ‘gazumped’— that is, priced out of the property they were intending to buy by a higher offer.

However, there are some statistics you don’t know that will support the UK’s supply crisis. Did you know, for example, that more than double the land allocated to housebuilding is currently taken up by golf courses in

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England? Data from Inside Housing shows that golf courses in England alone account for roughly 2% (270,000 hectares) of the country’s total land area (13.4m hectares), the equivalent to one-fifth of England’s total built up area. These statistics are even more shocking when put into a wider perspective—the space taken up by golf courses in England alone in terms of square metres is larger than the total land area of Luxembourg, a European country with a population of 543,202.

This certainly supports the notion that only 10% of land in England is classified as urban, according to the UK’s National Ecosystem Assessment—but further analysis shows that a startlingly low proportion (2.27%) is built-up land (with just half of this figure (1.1%) actually utilised for homes), with the remaining 7.7% of ‘urban’ space filled up by gardens, parks, roads and the like. So this begs the question—what is the other 90% of England’s land used for?

All we know for sure is that, given these statistics, the UK housing market is indeed in crisis.

February 20th Where exercise does more harm than good February 13th £48 billion is the price of divorce Sky News has revealed that Chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier is set to demand €57bn (£48bn) in a divorce settlement from Britain following talks in Brussels this week.

Sky News made the claims after an apparent meeting between UK and EU negotiators on Monday 6th February in which the figure was agreed on. France and Germany, it is said, were demanding that the UK pay upwards of £59 billion to settle their commitments to EU spending up to 2020.

The UK government is already committed to tens of billions of Euros worth of spending across EU projects which were agreed before the referendum, as well as pension payments to officials. The spending commitments are non-negotiable and the EU has declared that no trade arrangements can begin until the final figure is agreed between the two parties.

The figure could come as an embarrassment to Leave campaigners like Michael Gove, Boris Johnson and Nigel Farage, who had claimed that the cost of leaving the EU would be negligible. This also doesn’t take into account the spending pledges that the government has made in order to cover EU investment in to UK agricultural and business projects after we leave the union.

The UK had reportedly hoped to make trade arrangements with the bloc in parallel to negotiations about the so called “divorce settlement” figure, but this has now been slapped down by EU officials.

In a wide-ranging discussion it was also concluded that reciprocal rights for EU nationals would have to start from “ground zero”. This is despite the Prime Minister wanting to settle the rights of EU nationals in the UK and British nationals elsewhere as a priority.

Many had predicted that EU negotiations could be some of the most complicated ever seen. So far there has been no reason to doubt this assumption, with this news emerging before the Prime Minister has even triggered Article 50, the formal process for leaving the union.

It is a commonly accepted fact that exercise is generally good for you.

Keeping yourself in good shape with a combination of healthy eating and plentiful exercise is an important part of life. Unfortunately, it seems that at least one of those might not be an option for people in some cities around the world.

A study published in the medical journal Preventive Medicine, and since taken up by the World Health Organisation, has modelled the effects of air pollution on active travel – exercise – with some pretty shocking results.

In many cities around the world the benefits of cycling or running are outweighed by the damage done by air pollution in a very short time. For instance, in Allahabad in India or Zabol in Iran this ‘tipping point’ occurs after only half an hour. Other severe cases include Riyadh in Saudi Arabia, where the tipping point is 45 minutes, and Delhi in India and Xingtai in China, both of which will start to affect people who exercise within an hour.

March 8th Brazil’s unshakeable recession sets new record Having hosted one of the world’s most coveted events, there had been hopes Brazil would finally begin to see some return on the $4.6 billion investment. The state had argued the Olympics could act as a catalyst for economic development, that it could attract the kind of financial influence that the country needed to progress, and that it would give the Brazilian people the facilities and infrastructure many will utilise for generations to come.

The results are in, and it seems the countless empty stadiums either mothballed or used as bus depots have done little to boost the ever-growing void. Brazil is ending a second year in recession, leaving the county in its These results were measured in terms of PM2.5s – tiny pollutant particles which deepest economic decline since records get into the lungs and embed themselves began, and 8% smaller than it was in there. These can be naturally occurring if December 2014. there is a lot of dust or a forest fire in the Brazil is also deeply affected by the area, but the main cause is motor drop-in commodity prices. With demand vehicles and manufacturing, which explains why the worst-affected cities are in China continuing to fall, declining investor confidence has forced many in the developing world. companies to cut costs hitting the employment market. Unemployment The dangers of inhaling too much stands at 12.9 million, a number growing dangerous particulate matter are legion by 12.6% a year. and have been definitively linked to increased levels of pneumonia, heart Corruption, too, has a lot to answer for disease, strokes and cancer, among many other tragic things. It is worth noting in hampering the country’s growth, with that the study did not consider the effects officials at the highest level of of short term spikes in dangerous matter, government falling foul of internal only the effects of longer term exposure. investigations. There have been many reports in the Brazilian media outlining The Institute for Health Metrics and how the country’s biggest and Evaluation rank these PM2.5s, and best-known companies have taken other forms of particulate matter, among advantage of unfair business rates and the top risk factors for loss of health practices, all of which have been created worldwide. to line pockets.

In fact, air pollution is the leading cause So how does Brazil move forward? of death worldwide which can be linked to environmental factors, killing more It could be some time before we see than seven million people every year real change, but there are some signs of – one out of every eight deaths in the a slowing recession. With interest rates world. It accounts for more than two falling slower then predicted, and interest million deaths in China and India alone in the country’s vast commodities from every single year.

America and Europe beginning to return, investor confidence is slowly returning. If As the world becomes more and more government reforms in public spending choked with fumes, and cities become are successful, Brazil could finally get a larger and larger, this number is only strong enough grip to turn the corner. likely to increase.

March 9th More good news for renewable energy If you’ve looked for housing in Sydney in the last five years, chances are you may have found the whole process a bit of a challenge. With prices rising by as much as 60% in that period, it’s clear many simply can’t get their foot in the door. The list of reasons why this has occurred is not insignificant. Record low interest rates and sizeable tax breaks for both local and overseas investors seem to be the main arbiters.

What locals are seeing are prices becoming less and less attainable, as individuals earning salaries in excess of £50,000 struggle to enter the market.

With the cost of living increasing annually, it’s proving hard to support a rented property on top of saving for a deposit.

Now a coalition of charities in New South Wales wants to team up with first-time buyers, a group of people really struggling to break through the market’s restrictions.

The main focus of introducing shared ownership for citizens of Sydney is to assist people earning between £50,000 and £70,000 a year take a step towards ownership. This group of people (which includes police officers and teachers), aren’t eligible for either council or social housing, so are finding it increasingly hard to support a rented property while having to save for a deposit.

There have been similar schemes run in Britain, along with others in Western and South Australia. An idea that has been discussed by some of the charities based in New South Wales is to build block accommodation. The pooled money collected from tenants would then subsidise people using the shared ownership programme.

One thing is for certain, if property prices continue to increase, more citizens will have to move further afield.

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A TROUBLED HISTORY Northern Ireland – Moving forward

Words : Will Leyland | View : Henryk Sadura

Perhaps one of the most shocking things to consider when we go through the history of Northern Ireland and its struggles through the twentieth century is that we had a war zone right here in the UK. There was literally a war being fought in the streets of the United Kingdom, with weaponry, death and destruction usually reserved for the news reels discussing the latest developments across the Middle East or faraway lands. Northern Ireland and its troubles represent some of the most interesting, tragic and inspirational parts of the history of our country, and it would be a disservice to try and summarise a complicated and sensitive history in 2,000 words. Instead, Global Property Scene will look at a brief history of the conflict and investigate how Northern Ireland is putting its violent past behind and progressing forward into a prosperous future.

Back in 2012, a year marked by the incredible good feeling that the Olympics created, there was also important work being undertaken by the Queen. The diplomatic failure by both British and Irish governments to overcome the troubles had lasted for over 40 years. The British relationship with Ireland and Northern Ireland had reached breaking point as recently as 15 years earlier, and yet, the British head of state was set to arrive on a tour of Ireland and Northern Ireland. A state visit wasn’t particularly ground-breaking; there had been 19 others before it. What had signalled a historic shift in relations was a bold itinerary including visits that would have been unthinkable little more than a decade ago. The focal point of the trip was a meeting with Sinn Fein MP Martin McGuinness, who was the deputy first minister in the Stormont assembly until his recent retirement due to ill health, but was an IRA commander when the terrorist group murdered the Duke of Edinburgh’s uncle, Earl Mountbatten, in 1979.

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The Queen, so long regarded as a target by Mr McGuinness, shook hands with him during their meeting, a moment that was every bit as important to the peace process as her arrival in Dublin the year before. The ruling monarch and head of state shaking hands with an IRA commander would have been absolutely unthinkable at the height of the troubles, and that meeting which took place almost five years ago shows just how far relations have developed since those dark days.

Rewind things back and we can reasonably trace the beginning of the troubles back to a civil rights march in Londonderry on 5th October 1968.

1968 was a critical year in the civil rights movement, having come to international attention thanks to Martin Luther King in the USA. Since 1921 and the creation of Northern Ireland, the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) had held power, but unrest was rising at the treatment of the minority Catholic population. With the party drawing the majority of its support from the mainly Protestant population, it had no need to draw up laws or legislation to protect the Catholic community who were regularly discriminated against in the workplace, by police and in wider society.

This all came to a head with a civil rights march organised by The Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association (NICRA), calling for wide-ranging reforms: it demanded equal voting rights in local government elections; a fairer system for the allocation of public housing; an end to ‘gerrymandering’ (the manipulation of electoral boundaries to give one community an electoral advantage); an end to discrimination in employment; the disbandment of the ‘B-Specials’ (an all-Protestant auxiliary police force); and the repeal of the Special Powers Act (which allowed for internment of suspects without trial).

Belfast City Hall, Northern Ireland

On the day of the march, a few hundred civil rights protesters planned to walk from Duke Street in the predominantly Protestant Waterside area of Derry to the Diamond in the centre of the city. The police used batons and water cannons in an attempt to disperse the marchers, and violent skirmishes broke out. Among those injured in the clash were Gerry Fitt, a Republican and Labour MP, and three Labour MPs (Russell Kerr, Anne Kerr and John Ryan). Dramatic images were captured on camera by the media and broadcast around the world.

Following on from the disorder the situation quickly escalated, and rioting and public disorder became commonplace across Belfast and the wider areas throughout the summer of 1969. The British government saw the problem as so grave that British troops were sent in to restore order across the area. Things continued to deteriorate though, and the government were forced to dissolve the Northern Irish Parliament and impose direct rule from London as the situation showed no signs of improving. It was around 1969 that the Provisional IRA (the Irish Republican Army, referred to as the IRA from here on), split from the official IRA and decided to begin the ‘long war’. For them, the ‘long war’ was the only option. This strategy had been gaining traction since the introduction of internment (imprisonment without trial) in 1971 and the killing of 13 people by the Parachute Regiment on Bloody Sunday the following year. When secret talks with the UK government in 1972

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collapsed, the IRA leadership resolved to erode the British presence in Northern Ireland through a war of attrition.

Bloody Sunday marked perhaps the darkest day of the troubles in 1972 when British soldiers shot 26 unarmed civilians during a peaceful protest march against internment. 14 people died: 13 were killed outright, while the death of another man four months later was attributed to his injuries. Many of the victims were shot while fleeing from the soldiers, and some were shot while trying to help the wounded. Other protesters were injured by rubber bullets or batons, and two were run down by army vehicles.

There was international condemnation and revulsion at the events unfolding in Northern Ireland and, following this, the government attempted to conduct covert negotiations with the IRA, but discussions fell apart and the conflict continued burning like an uncontrollable fire. At this point, the IRA decided to take its war to the UK mainland. In February 1974 a coach carrying soldiers and families in northern England was bombed by the IRA. 12 people were killed and 14 hurt. In October- November 1974 a wave of IRA bombs hit British pubs killing 28 people and wounding more than 200. In August 1979 the IRA caused international outrage and disgust with the assassination of Lord Mountbatten after they detonated a bomb on his boat whilst he was aboard with his family, also killing women and children in the attack. There were a number of other incidents

River Lagan, Belfast, Northern Ireland

before the IRA successfully detonated a bomb in Brighton attempting to assassinate then-Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, who narrowly escaped serious injury.

After the failure of the Anglo-Irish agreement in 1985, which saw an attempt at power sharing fail miserably, there were fears that a resolution may never be achieved to the violence that had now become endemic across Northern Ireland. Sinn Féin, the political wing of the IRA, point-blank refused to negotiate, whilst the Unionist parties opposed any Irish influence whatsoever.

Things were looking bleak until the Good Friday agreement was conceived in 1996. Perhaps due to political maturity or war weariness, or perhaps a mixture of both, all the parties were encouraged to enter negotiations with the important intervention and assistance of the then-US President Bill Clinton who took a personal hand in the negotiations, sending his own envoy to oversee talks.

The talks were initially shaky, with all sides reticent to negotiate with the other. It was seen by those on the unionist side as totally unacceptable to negotiate with terrorists but, through concerted effort, the sides were brought together and a provisional agreement was reached. The Good Friday Agreement marked a seismic shift in Northern Ireland’s political

landscape. The UUP and SDLP agreed to accept power-sharing, including with former paramilitaries who were committed to the peace process.

All signatories to the agreement endorsed the “consent principle”. This meant that any change in Northern Ireland’s constitutional status - Irish unification - would happen only if popular majorities voted in favour in separate referendums held at the same time on both sides of the border.

This partnership of constitutional opposites is perhaps the most remarkable outcome of the troubles, and one that underlines the triumph of politics over violence in post-conflict Northern Ireland.

The story and history of Northern Ireland simply can’t be covered in any meaningful way without having the space and time to write many thousands of words. The struggles, the darkness, the tragedy and, eventually, the hope and light that emerged makes for one of the most interesting political and historical stories available to us. The triumph of words over bullets to achieve a relative peace is an astonishing modern day achievement, and it should never be forgotten that the peace achieved is fragile.

Today, Belfast is a bustling and prosperous city. The scars and demonstrations of its violent past remain as evidence that peace has come at a price but, largely, this is a city that has put aside a dark past to achieve a hopeful future. Jobs, industry, property and the wider economy

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are growing despite fears caused by the European referendum result last summer.

Headline figures announced by NISRA (Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency) show that economic activity was estimated to have increased by 0.4% between Q3 - Q4 2015. The index also increased by 0.9% over the year (Q4 2014 to Q4 2015). Over the last two years annual output increased by 1.4%. The private sector was estimated to have grown by 2% over the year to Q4 2015, and by 2.3% for the whole of 2015, compared to 2014. The same agency reported that unemployment in Northern Ireland has decreased substantially in recent years, and is now roughly at 6.1%, down from a peak of 17.2% in 1986, with youth unemployment and long-term unemployment having fallen most quickly.

Northern Irish and, in particular, Belfast property is also seeing large growth too. The latest figures published by The Office for National Statistics show a 7.8% growth in property prices in the last 12 months up to the end of 2016. If the political climate stays calm there is now scope for the Northern Irish to really expand and develop, and there are even reports that there is a shortage of supply of housing as demand begins to soar.

Shoots of economic growth stand as a testament to the future-looking attitude of those in charge and business leaders across the country. The latest Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) survey said buyer interest in homes was strong, but the number of houses coming onto the market was falling. The majority who were questioned for the survey, produced with Ulster Bank, said they felt prices had gone up during January and would continue to do so over the next three months. Last month the RICS forecast that house prices would increase by around 3% this year.

The economy, jobs, growth and property are all feeling the positive impact of a settled and improved political climate in Northern Ireland, but there are also warnings that Brexit may present a significant challenge to all the hard work that has taken place over the last 35 years.

Cross border co-operation with the Republic of Ireland has been a cornerstone of the peace process, and the republic is strongly integrated into the EU project. There are fears that a poor deal for EU membership following an exit could jeopardise business exports to Ireland as well as the current border agreement, which means that nationals don’t need to show their passports to travel from the north to the republic.

There is also evidence that political opinion in the north is shifting, as evidenced by the recent election results for the Northern Irish government which followed the collapse of the Stormont government after a scandal which toppled the First Minister, Arlene Foster. At first glance, the results of the 2017 Northern Ireland assembly elections look very familiar. The largest unionist party, the DUP, once again come first in the election that took place on Thursday 2nd of March, as it has done in all five assembly elections of the 21st century. The largest nationalist party, Sinn Féin, has come second, also for the fifth time in a row. The other parties trail behind the DUP and Sinn Féin in the usual order. But if you look again, the results show significant shifts. The DUP may well once again head the pack, but its share of the first preference vote has slipped for the third election in a row, now down to 28.1%. Sinn Féin’s, in comparison, has risen to its highest ever share, 27.9%. The gap between them across the whole of Northern Ireland is now fewer than 1,200 votes, and there is only a one seat difference between them in the 90-seat assembly. For the first time in Northern Ireland’s devolved politics, the two main nationalist parties (Sinn Féin and the SDLP) now have more seats than the two main unionist parties (the DUP and the UUP).

A poor Brexit deal and subsequent economic performance could well tip the balance for the people of Northern Ireland in the direction of unification with the republic. For now, many across the country are content with a peaceful and prosperous present, whilst hoping for an improved future for their children. The potential is certainly there for a people that it would be hard to argue didn’t deserve it. Played in the right way, the country could reach its full potential as one of the heavyweight economies of Europe, but threats presented by Brexit and political shifts need to be managed delicately in order to maintain a bright future.

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Carrick-a-Rede rope bridge, Northern Ireland

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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

Navitimer Rattrapante steel, Breitling

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YEARS OF INNOVATION AND EXCELLENCE Event review: 2017

Words: Michael Smith

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Customers are always looking for the latest trends and designs, hoping to be the first to wear a future classic. Baselworld, the world’s longest running watch event, has a rich history of achieving some of the most iconic launches. Swiss watchmakers and jewellers, along with related sectors, are once again taking part in this not-to-be-missed trade event and it is here you will find the latest and greatest designs.

The event commenced on March 23rd, with a large gathering of international press getting the first taste of the industry’s latest collection of impressive innovation and expertise, much of which has been in response to increasingly difficult economic conditions.

Before we get to the market, let me tell you a little history about the event.

Baselworld launched in 1917 and featured just 29 exhibitors, all of whom had strong foundations in the Swiss watchmaking community. Having grown year-on-year we now find the event boasting a whole host of international brands, alongside a very impressive collection of 220 Swiss companies.

Colt Skyracer, Breitling

Current trends There has been a notable shift away from elaborate design, with brands creating more restrained products. The focus has been on functionality, durability and comfort, by means of useful complications, original adjustment systems ensuring enhanced user friendliness, and special attention being applied to precise construction designed to make watches more resistant to wear.

So why this change?

On the 1st of January 2017, the ‘Swiss Made Label’ came into effect, an association for the promotion of Swiss products and services. This quality standard logo features a crossbow signifying the importance of protecting Swiss products across the globe. The crossbow stands as a symbol of confidence-building values such as quality, certainty, reliability and solidity - both for companies as well as for consumers. Swiss Made Label members therefore stand out from the competition.

This new standard has increased the pressure on brands to ensure the long-term durability of their products, and much like the motor industry there is increasing pressure on watchmakers to supply longer guarantee periods with wider service intervals.

Vingt-8 ISO Voutilainen

Feeling the pressure of these new quality standards are the “Les Ateliers”, the workshops creating a live feel to the event. Around 40 brands are taking their place in “Les Ateliers”. This welcoming area, located in the open expanses of hall 1.2, gives them enhanced visibility whilst reflecting their innovative spirit through a particularly modern booth design.

The market Despite the global watch market continuing to experience some of its most competitive trading conditions, the Swiss watch industry remains the world leader in value terms. It ended 2016 with total sales of £15.6 billion.

Further international uncertainty with regard to politics, security and finance, coupled with less tourism in Europe, was expected to hinder the Swiss market further, yet confidence continues to grow in Swiss quality.

The persistent strength of the Swiss franc is also helping boost the value of Swiss products. With no sign of any decline in Chinese demand on the horizon, 2017 could be another strong year for Swiss watch making.

Special thanks to Baselworld for their hospitality throughout.

Over the page you will find our product highlights from this years event.

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Heritage Black Bay, Tudor

Tradition Dame 7038, Breguet

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5 WATCH HIGHLIGHTS

1 Jaquet Droz Loving Butterfly Automaton

--£ 101,553 Taking its inspiration from the forest surrounding La Chaux-de-Fonds, this stunning watch delivers an annimated butterfly rendered in 22-carat gold.

The design is set in a 43mm case with an onyx or Polynesian black mother-of-pearl dial, 68-hour power reserve and is limited to just 28 pieces in each case metal.

2

3

4

Hublot

Bvlgari

Patek Philippe

MP-09 Tourbillon Bi-Axis

Serpenti leather collection

5940R men’s perpetual calendar

--£136,211 The MP-09 boasts a five-day power reserve and is equipped with a bi-axial tourbillon that undertakes a complete rotation per minute for the first axis, and a rotation every 30 seconds for the second axis.

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---

---

£5,960

£70,334

Bvlgari’s Serpenti range of watches is now all tied-down in a new leather collection. The watch uses a 35mm curved case, quartz movement and and can be specified with or without brilliant-cut diamonds around the edge of the case.

This classically designed watch packs a lot of features into its ultra-thin 37mm case. The face carries day, date, month, leap year and 24h indication by hands, and utilises a hand-stitched alligator strap with prong buckle.

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

5 Rolex Oyster Perpetual Sea-Dweller

--£8,350 Introduced in 1967, the Oyster Perpetual Sea-Dweller continues to stand as a legend among professional divers’ watches. This 2017 model features a 43 mm steel case, 3235 calibre movement and is water-resistant to 4,000 feet. www.globalpropertyscene.com

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Email: exhibitions@knightknox.com +44 7456 815 739

KNIGHT KNOX

HONG KONG INVESTOR SEMINAR Date 9th - 11th June 2017

Location Kowloon Shangri-La, Harbour Rooms I & II, 64 Mody Road, Tsim Sha Tsui East, Hong Kong

Given the tremendous success of our international property investment seminars, Knight Knox are once again gearing up for another Investor Seminar in Hong Kong in June.

The seminar is Knight Knox’s fourth event in Hong Kong, following on from the record-breaking event that took place in March which saw a huge growth in attendees across all three days.

Therefore Knight Knox are returning to the city in June, eager to meet with keen investors and display our portfolio of past, present and future investment opportunities across the UK.

One-to-one consultations

Brand new exclusive UK launches

Invest with confidence

Across the event’s three-day duration, there will be ample opportunity to meet with one of Knight Knox’s highly experienced Property Consultants to discuss our portfolio, and your individual investment needs.

At each of our seminars, Knight Knox presents a brand new development opportunity exclusively to seminar attendees.

Knight Knox are at the forefront of UK property investment, specialising in the provision of investment opportunities in the Northern Powerhouse, and have launched over 75 developments to date.

Register for your free tickets to receive information about our new launches.

CONTACT US TODAY TO REGISTER FOR YOUR FREE TICKETS

+44 7456 815 739

THE GREAT BRITISH BREAK-UP Is now the time to invest in the UK? Words : Hannah Wilde | View : Claudio Divizia

There’s no denying it—the UK has had an interesting year, with the past 12 months delivering monumental changes in the political, social, cultural and international landscapes. 2016 saw the introduction of an increase in Stamp Duty Land Tax across the board and a Referendum that shocked the nation, not forgetting the question mark that suddenly emerged surrounding the UK’s allegiance with long-time transatlantic ally America following a closely-fought presidential election that preceded the ascension of maverick Donald Trump to the most powerful position in the developed world.

Overview Encompassing the countries of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, the United Kingdom is a small isolated isle within the wider continental area of Europe, encircled by the Atlantic Ocean. Despite its relatively small land area of 243,610 km², the UK is the 21st most populous country in the world with an estimated population of 65.1 million, and is responsible for the world’s fifth-largest economy by nominal GDP behind the USA, China, Japan and Germany.

The UK has always placed huge focus on its industrial output, recognised as the world’s first industrialised city since the Industrial Revolution of the 18th century. Fast-forward to the 21st century, and not much has changed in that respect—industry is still at the forefront of the UK’s growth and power. Its finance and banking sector accounts for 7.5% of the country’s total GDP, its information communications technology sector is worth an estimated £58 billion per year, its construction industry employs 2.93 million people across its 280,000 construction businesses, and its healthcare sector generates annual revenues of over £2bn.

From this respect, the UK looks in rude heath. But given the turbulence experienced in recent months, Global Property Scene will provide an in-depth insight into the UK, with particular focus on its economy, its political landscape, and most importantly its housing market to see how the country has fared since its now-historic Referendum vote in June 2016.

Economy You can’t begin to discuss the UK’s current economic position without first addressing the elephant in the room: the UK’s unexpected decision to leave the European Union. Almost nine months ago, a very slim majority of the UK population (51%) made the momentous decision that the country should leave the EU—giving rise to the dawn of a new era: the era of ‘Brexit’. A portmanteau of the words ‘Britain’ and ‘Exit’, as suddenly as the word Brexit appeared in public consciousness it was thrust into the UK’s everyday lexicon when the very event it denoted came to pass—Britain did indeed vote to exit the EU. And so Brexit’s fate as a political buzzword was sealed, to the extent that it was even voted the word of 2016 by Collins Dictionary, heralded “politics’ most important contribution to the [English] language in 40 years”.

That said, it’s easy to see why the word was never far from the lips of observers or from the printing presses up and down the country from the day David Cameron first fuelled whispers of a Referendum as early as 2013, the Brexit fire was fuelled even further when Mr. Cameron was duly voted in for a second term in the 2015 election, making good on his promise to give British people the “simple choice” between staying in or leaving the EU. Soon enough the date was set (June 23rd 2016), but what

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Traditional English terraced houses, UK

was pitched as a simple “in/out Referendum” proved to be anything but simple—only with hindsight could anyone have known that this Referendum was destined to be Mr. Cameron’s downfall, and cause a political furore the likes of which hasn’t been seen for many years.

After a closely-fought and long drawn out battle between the self-professed “Brexiteers” (spearheaded by former UKIP leader Nigel Farage) and the opposing “Europhiles” (led by a decidedly lacklustre David Cameron), on Thursday 23rd June the people came to a decision, a decision that many had not expected. Britain voted to disengage itself from the European Union, sparking the beginning of a long and arduous process of working through five decades (and an estimated 80,000 pages) of EU litigation that comes as part and parcel of severing ties with their European neighbours.

Given its importance on a national, European and even international scale, it’s no wonder that the now-infamous term ‘Brexit’ has been bandied around in the press and in casual conversations alike, experiencing an unprecedented 3,400% rise in use since it was first coined in 2013 when the idea of a Referendum was still in its infancy. But now the dust has settled and the country is nine months on from the momentous decision, Global Property Scene can look objectively at the immediate aftermath of the Referendum, and how the country has moved on from what David

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Cameron called “perhaps the biggest giant democratic exercise in our history”.

In something akin to a modern doomsday, the reaction to the ‘Leave’ decision was completely knee-jerk: Sterling was instantly reduced to its lowest level since the financial crash of 2008, the stock market took a nose-dive, and reports were rife that all was not well in 10 Downing Street following David Cameron’s failed ‘Remain’ campaign. This was indeed fact—within a matter of hours of the final decision (dripped in overnight as the votes were meticulously counted and verified across the 382 makeshift polling stations around the country), the country found itself leaderless, as the nation—and much of the world—watched a woebegone David Cameron step down as Prime Minister, steadfast in his resolution not to be “the captain that steers our country to its next destination” of a post-Brexit Britain.

This did nothing to assuage the press’s “end-is-nigh” mentality, dining out with absolute relish on the country’s widespread disbelief, mixing a regurgitation of doom-laden prophecies of things to come with avid speculation over who will be David Cameron’s successor. This speculation continued for days, as two front-runners came to the fore: Theresa May and Andrea Leadsom. A short-lived battle of wits and words soon ensued, with May emerging as the overall victor, taking the reigns of the

Conservative Party and by default leadership of the country. To borrow David Cameron’s idiom, the UK had a new captain, now heading fullsteam ahead to their new destination: a destination outside the realms of the European Union.

Since assuming office on 13th July 2016, Theresa May wasted no time in addressing her plans for exiting the European Union, even going as far as to announce that she would be willing to give up the UK’s access to the free market during the negotiation process. However, whether you agree with her “hard Brexit” mentality or not, it has to be conceded that the new dynasty with May at the helm has done a great deal to steady the waters of economic stability, with her new Cabinet and right-hand man Philip Hammond as Chancellor of the Exchequer coming on leaps and bounds in the quest to re-establish a practical fiscal policy that leaves room to manoeuvre during periods of political uncertainty. One such preventative measure was the decision, made initially in August but maintained to this day, to drop interest rates from 0.5% to a historic low (0.25%), providing the economy with a much-needed £170bn monetary buffer to keep the country out of recession.

The housing market One element really capturing the attention of spectators and active

participants alike is the state of the UK’s housing market in the wake of one of the country’s most turbulent years in recent history. Whilst uncertainty in the wider market is only set to increase when the government finally triggers Article 50, formally beginning a two-year negotiation process to withdraw from the EU, the housing market has been one of the only consistencies in a world of ambiguity. A million miles away from the doom-laden Treasury prediction that the UK’s house prices could crash by as much as 18% in the aftermath of Brexit, house prices were seemingly ignorant of the political debacle engulfing the country, standing firm to rise 4.5% in 2016, with Nationwide Building Society putting the average house price at year’s end in the region of £205,898.

The market’s growth across 2016 only cemented its buoyancy against wider political and economic worries, echoing the financial crisis of 2008 whereby house prices in the main continued to grow regardless of the recession in most global economies. And it seems like this trend is set to continue into 2017 and beyond, as the housing market continues to grow despite—and in some cases because of—the continued political uncertainty. Although expert predictions differ greatly in their expectations for the coming year (ranging from house price growth of 1—4%), one thing that is almost unanimous across the board is that property prices will continue their upwards trajectory as long as the acute shortage of supply continues to prevail in a market where the number of available properties

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is nowhere near sufficient to cover the influx of demand. Nationwide’s chief economist was frank in his assessment of the market, testifying that “a small gain (around 2%) is more likely than a decline over 2017 as a whole, since low interest rates are expected to help underpin demand, while a shortage of homes on the market will continue to provide support for house prices”.

UK: An investment destination?

In line with Nationwide’s acute observation, it has for a long time been an open secret in the UK that the country isn’t building enough homes to satiate demand. Even current Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government Sajit Javid in the highly-anticipated Governmental Housing White Paper released in February of this year admits that “for decades the pace of house-building has been sluggish at best, [resulting] in the number of new homes not [keeping] pace with our growing population”. This supply shortage has been left largely unchallenged since 1975, which has resulted in a housing deficit marching to the tune of 3.6 million homes—working out at an average annual deficit of 90,000 homes per year.

However, it does have to be said that Brexit didn’t leave the entire housing market untouched. The UK’s capital city of London, once a posterchild for domestic and international investment, took the brunt of the fallout from the Referendum, with the higher-end prime market particularly hard-hit. Research from Countrywide shows that prime central areas of Kensington and Westminster, usually awash with rich clientele looking for a luxury central base, saw house prices drop by as much as 6% in 2016, with Savills predicting that the prime central market will fall by a further 9% by the end of 2017. This isn’t just constrained to multi-million-pound properties—the London market as a whole has and still continues to struggle in the post-Brexit landscape, with prices plateauing across the capital. Knight Frank goes so far as to predict that the entire London market will see a 1% drop in house prices in 2017.

There’s no single definitive answer for how many new homes are needed in the UK each year to meet demand (estimates vary from publication to publication), but if the Government’s 2016 statement that 1 million new homes needed by 2020 is to be believed, this puts the yearly housing quota at 250,000. What sounds like an achievable goal for a country whose construction sector employs some 10% of its working population, data shows that 2016 only saw 152,280 housing starts across the year (averaging 38,070 per quarter), amounting to an annual deficit of almost 100,000. If the Government continue on this trajectory, by their own deadline of 2020 there will still be a housing deficit, this time closer to 391,000.

The huge gulf between supply and demand has a myriad of knock-on effects for the market, not least increasing urgency for those properties that are made available. Data from the National Association of Estate Agents suggests that the imbalance between supply and demand is at its highest-ever level, with 11 prospective buyers chasing each available property on the market. Such acute supply issues have done nothing to help the unaffordability issues running rampant in the market, only fuelling house price growth yet further.

As a result, Britons are turning to the Private Rented Sector (PRS) to fulfil their housing needs, with the UK emulating progressive European countries like Germany and France. According to Jones Lang LaSalle, the PRS now comprises some 18% of the UK overall housing stock, overtaking social housing for the first time as the UK’s most populous tenure behind homeownership. The value of the PRS tips the scale at over £1.29 trillion, a figure that surpasses the overall value of mortgaged owner-occupied stock across the country. As it stands, there are 5.7 million UK households in the Private Rented Sector (equivalent to one in five), yet the Institute for Public Policy Research suggests this figure will increase 26.3% to 7.2 million as early as 2025. Therefore, factoring in the ONS predictions that the UK population is expected to grow to more than 69 million in 2024, it seems that private rented accommodation, a sector that by the government’s own admission has doubled since 2000, will always be in high demand.

That said, aspirations for homeownership are still strong in almost all areas of the country, if just a distant dream for the masses. One legacy the financial crisis left behind was tougher regulations in the mortgage market particularly for first-time buyers, a side-effect of which has meant that average house deposits have escalated 88% since 2007 to reach £32,927. This means it would take the average first-time buyer couple on a low-to-medium income 24 years to accumulate (some eight times higher than the three years it would have taken the same couple in 1990).

This isn’t the only affordability hurdle potential buyers now have to overcome: Nationwide data shows that the ratio of average house prices to average earnings across the UK has now hit 5.89, the highest level in 8 years. To illustrate, government research shows that it’s now become the norm for UK homes to ‘earn’ more than their occupants: in 2015, the average home in the South East of England rose in value by £29,000, while the average wage in the region was just £24,542. This level of explosive growth makes homeownership all the more unattainable for many. Granted, the UK still has a long way to go before the age-old “an Englishman’s home is his castle” mentality fades from popular consciousness, but whether residents of Britain like it or not, the rental revolution is well and truly underway, and looks like it’s here to stay.

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Given the incredibly strong rental market in the UK that has come about thanks to the lack of available homes, growing demand and explosive house price growth, it’s no wonder that Britain has retained its crown as one of the world’s premier buy-to-let hotspots.

Therefore, taking London out of the equation (a market somewhat of a separate entity anyway, demanding average house prices—£585,516— nearly three times the national average), on the whole the property market is, and remains, a promising proposition. As tenants, homeowners and investors alike are becoming disenfranchised with London’s vastly inflated property prices, declining rents and fluctuating tenant demand, this has left a gap in the market for a strong property hotspot, a position that key Northern cities like Manchester, Liverpool and Leeds are keen to fill.

Much buoyed by the announcement of the Northern Powerhouse initiative in 2013—launched by then-Chancellor George Osborne as a way to rebalance the UK’s increasingly London-centric economy and distribute the wealth more evenly to the Northern regions—regional cities are now coming out of London’s shadow, competing with the capital on both the national and international stage. Granting Northern regions more devolved powers and bolstered budgets for infrastructure and investment has only empowered cities like Manchester and Liverpool to become powerhouses in their own right, with the former seen as a catalyst for the growth of the North (to the extent that Manchester is now affectionately labelled “The Capital of the Northern Powerhouse”).

This has set the stage for investors, moving out of London in their thousands, to invest in strong Northern Powerhouse regions which offer lower purchase prices, higher yields and a significant opportunity for capital appreciation thanks to continually-growing house prices. Thus is the strength of the Northern Powerhouse, the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) forecasts that property values will rise in each region of the UK in 2017, with East Anglia, the North West and West Midlands all recording higher gains than the national average.

Hometrack also shares this pro-Northern Powerhouse sentiment, predicting an overall 4% house price growth in 2017 by crediting the above-average increases in large regional cities like Manchester and Birmingham to offset London’s low nominal growth. Because of this, the market has seen a marked increase in interest from overseas property buyers attracted by the weaker pound that Brexit brought, with Colliers International believing that this “will push investment volumes up this year to above 2016 levels”.

-On the whole, it is fair to say that the UK hasn’t fared too badly in the aftermath of Brexit. Sure, there was a lot of speculation and scaremongering in the run-up to (and in the weeks after) the Referendum vote, but looking at the bigger picture shows a country still enjoying high employment, a relatively healthy mortgage market, bolstered infrastructural investments, and a dynamic property market for both homeowners and investors alike. Despite fluctuations in house price predictions, and many spectators bandying around generic mumblings of political and economic uncertainty in the future, the almost unanimous sentiment by industry professions remains surprisingly unified: while the supply/demand imbalance dominates the market, UK property will continue to thrive into 2017 and beyond.

Manchester, UK

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TESLA & SOLAR CITY Could the solution to air pollution be just around the corner?

Words : Alex Timperley | View : Nadezda Murmakova

Tesla and SolarCity represent an attempt to save the planet by Elon Musk and his band of inventors and engineers based in California, USA. Both companies were founded with the goal of mass market advancement of electric cars and renewable energy usage which they hope will lead us towards a sustainable future.

Tesla, originally Tesla Motors, was founded in 2003 and specialises in the design and manufacture of electric cars, as well as the development and manufacture of lithium-ion battery energy storage systems. It is now a market leader in both areas, with Tesla cars and Powerwall home energy storage systems becoming more efficient and ubiquitous every year.

SolarCity was founded slightly later in 2006 and has since become the largest supplier of solar energy in the USA. The company’s 15,000 employees design, manufacture and install solar panel systems for both residential and commercial use at prices which sit below the market value for utility costs. Much like Tesla, the focus is on reducing the cost of this emergent technology, with the eventual aim of encouraging mass adoption and a more sustainable future.

It is impossible to really understand why either company does what it does without bearing in mind that the eventual goal is not profit, but improving our chances of saving the environment.

The two companies completed a US$2.6bn merger in November 2016, making the combined company a true giant in the world of sustainability.

The idea behind the merger was to improve efficiency and to make

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possible the idea that a customer can shop in one place and fulfil all of their energy needs. It is now perfectly possible to drive a state-of-the-art electric car and remove yourself from the fossil fuel powered energy grid, all thanks to the power of the oldest and most efficient power source known to man – the Sun – and the combined technology systems created

by Tesla and SolarCity.

So, how are Tesla and SolarCity looking to change our future?

Tesla: the unlikely upstart It is worth recognising at this point that the fact Tesla even exists in its current form is something of a marvel. Starting a brand new car company is one of the trickiest and most unlikely enterprises imaginable.

Before selling a single car, you need to invest millions upon millions of dollars into your brand new car company. You have to buy a factory, work out how to design a car and everything in it, build a prototype in order to raise even more money, buy a bigger factory and then spend even more on marketing your product and actually producing it.

In addition to all of that, making an innovative new product which will break through and take a worthwhile market share is almost impossible.

The internal combustion engine petrol car is basically optimised and, if you go down that route, you can only really offer a different aesthetic look.

There is no appreciable revolutionary ground available in the standard car market which is defined more by cautious iterations on existing designs.

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Tesla Model X --RRP: From £84,900 Acceleration: 0-62 mph: 3.1 to 5.2 seconds Range: 416.8 to 540.7 km battery-only Max speed: 139.8 to 155.3 mph

Integrated rooftop solar panels, Š SolarCity

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With all that in mind, it is no surprise that investors are not keen to get into car companies on the ground floor, which explains why the last successful American start-up car manufacturer before Tesla was Chrysler in 1925.

For Tesla to break through, they had to basically reinvent the car and come up with something entirely new – an electric vehicle which was financially feasible and could match or exceed the petrol cars which dominate the market. That they have managed to do this in the face of an oil industry which needs to sell petrol to survive, and whilst having to catch up to car companies 100 years their senior, is quite remarkable. Henry Ford managed to make petrol cars commercially viable in the 1920s via mass production; can Elon Musk and Tesla do the same for electric vehicles over the next decade? The stakes are high. 45% of the oil extracted in the whole world is used for transportation, the majority of which ends up in cars, meaning that it would be a big win for mankind if we can make cars environmentally friendly.

The original plan to sell a high-end luxury car to the wealthy, the Tesla Roadster, in order to fund more affordable models in the future, the Model S and the Model X, enabled Tesla to establish a foothold in the market at the same time as funding future research and development. The end goal was to produce a top-of-the-range electric vehicle for the mass market which would be affordable and desirable, thus breaking the monopoly of the petrol car and changing the market. The idea wasn’t even for Tesla to become the world’s biggest car seller; instead, the aim was to sell enough to scare the major car manufacturers into embracing the electric car as the vehicle of the future.

And this plan has quite obviously been a success. When the Tesla Roadster first began shipping in 2008, none of the big companies had an electric vehicle on the market. Now they all do, and products such as the Nissan Leaf, the BMW i3 and the Chevrolet Bolt have been embraced by consumers. This newfound popularity is evidenced by the fact that sales of plug-in electric cars increased by more than 40% in 2016. Soon, the Tesla Model 3 will join their ranks and, Tesla hopes, change the game forever.

In Musk’s own words: “The impact that Tesla will have is fairly small in and of itself. It will change people’s perception perhaps, but it will not in and of itself change the world. But if large numbers of people are choosing to buy the Model 3, and the car companies see that there’s no excuse left anymore because the car’s long range and the car’s handling and acceleration is better in every way than a gasoline car, and it’s affordable—and people are pretty sure this is what they want to buy—then that’s what will prompt car companies to invest real money into electric vehicle programs of their own, and indirectly, by spurring competition, Tesla can be the catalyst for a multi-order of magnitude shift of the entire industry towards electric.”

Tesla has certainly played its part in moving the market so far, but if it wants to really impact on the world then the upcoming Model 3 has to become a global smash hit. This is where Tesla might run into problems.

The question of scale is the big one which is leading many industry figures to doubt whether Tesla can meet its ambitious goal of producing 500,000 cars a year and make the Tesla Model 3 a fixture of day to day life across America and the world. Even this figure should be met with scepticism. Tesla currently has three models of car, making half a million sales unlikely. BMW, for example, has 36 models available to support two million sales a year.

With projected sales figures like that, changing the market becomes not just desirable but actually essential for the future of Tesla. There are other problems which need solving before that can happen, though.

The larger car makers have established supply chains which allow them to build, sell and ship huge numbers of cars, and Tesla cannot currently hope to match that. It is why Tesla can only ship 50,000 cars a year, a similar number to what General Motors can ship in a week. To increase their output to 500,000 cars a year, Tesla will need to upgrade their infrastructure. This is a cost which the older carmakers have been able to spread over a century, but Tesla will have to bear it all upfront. In addition, Tesla cars obviously run on a different system to traditional cars, which means they cannot simply buy an older manufacturing plant and run everything through there.

The very innovations which make Tesla cars stand out from the competition will themselves present problems when production is scaled up. Building a high volume production line is orders of magnitude more complex than producing a low volume of cars. Tesla is about to find out the difference between a real car plant and a relatively small car factory.

For instance, Tesla cars are made with light aluminium bodies in order to

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Motors Assembly Plant in Tilburg, Netherlands

offset the weight of the battery which is heavier than a traditional engine.

Each car is made from approximately 60 separate coils of aluminium which are moulded into shape by specialists. Tesla plans to build its own aluminium casting factory in preparation for the future, but this is a move which has raised eyebrows in the industry. Aluminium casting is a very delicate process which needs a lot of equipment and a lot of experts to get right. It is such a complex process that more established companies such as Daimler have reportedly been considering outsourcing it. So far, the Tesla aluminium casting centre has been in construction for more than a year, and there is no sign of it being finished yet.

The future of the Model 3, the car which is designed to change the market, relies on a lot of different things going right and arriving on schedule. Of course, this is nothing new for Tesla, and if anyone can achieve the supposedly impossible it is them, but the Model 3 won’t be delivered at the right time and the right price if absolutely everything doesn’t go perfectly to plan. There is very little redundancy in the Tesla timescale.

In the meantime, Tesla will carry on perfecting their cars and continue working on another aspect of their plan to save the world: batteries.

Batteries are a key component of the Tesla automobile, but the company is also putting them to good use elsewhere in their attempts to force change on the fossil fuel energy companies which run the world. Batteries may not get the same press as shiny new cars, but reforming the way we get power is equally as important as reforming the way we travel as far as Elon Musk and Tesla are concerned.

The business of producing electricity is enormous, and the vast majority of it is incredibly dirty. Approximately 40% of all emissions produced by humans across the world are a result of the electricity we produce to power our civilisation. Coal, gas and oil are all fossil fuels, and none of them offer us a long-term future on a world fit for human society as we

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know it – but this is what we are burning in order to live our lives.

Tesla batteries are designed to integrate with a home or car in order to reduce reliance on fossil fuels by providing cheaper and more efficient energy. The Powerwall battery systems on offer are suitable for homes and businesses, and the larger Powerpacks are suitable for large-scale commercial or utility use.

The world currently produces approximately 34 gigawatts worth of lithium-ion batteries a year, which sounds like a lot. Funnily enough, this is approximately enough to fit into 500,000 Tesla Model 3s, but the world needs batteries for more than just futuristic cars. To that end, Tesla is currently building the world’s largest battery factory – the Gigafactory – in Nevada. It is only partially complete at the moment, but it is already producing top-of-the-range batteries on a large enough scale to supply massive new energy farms, such as the recently opened facility in Hawaii which will allow Kauai island to live without much of the diesel it currently imports.

At full capacity, the Gigafactory will more than double the world’s battery production, making batteries cheaper and allowing for more rapid innovation. To add to that, there are up to three more Gigafactories planned for the future. At a cost of US$5bn each, this is a serious investment which will, in theory, future proof Tesla.

But the true goal of Tesla was never to take over the automobile or energy markets. The goal of Tesla is to build truly sustainable electric products at an affordable price to show that it can be done. Opening people’s eyes to the possibilities is at least as great a challenge as any engineering puzzles which need to be overcome, and if Tesla can manage that then it is possible to look into a future where the fossil fuel age is seen as an historical anomaly.

However, even though transportation accounts for as much as a third of

the total energy use in developed countries, of which the majority is produced by cars, that still leaves two thirds of our emissions unaccounted for. This is where SolarCity comes into the equation, because you can make the best batteries and the best electric cars in the world but you still need that third element. Without power, they are nothing more than fancy metal boxes.

SolarCity: the missing link The reason that people are so keen on installing Tesla Powerwalls in their homes or the larger Powerpacks for commercial or utility scale uses is that they can take advantage of cheap electricity and save money. You charge the batteries with cheap electricity at night and use it in the day when the peak rate is in place. By doing this, you can save approximately two thirds on your energy costs and live a better life. But how does that fit in with the Tesla mission statement? Simply taking advantage of cheap electricity rates does nothing to solve the problem of power generation being responsible for more than 40% of the world’s total carbon emissions.

The trick is to generate your own power on a big enough scale that people, households and cities can divest themselves from fossil fuels entirely, and help Elon Musk in his goal to save the planet. We need everything to run on electricity, and we need it to do so sustainably and as soon as possible.

Solar power is very clearly going to be the main source of clean energy in the future. It is only a matter of time. The Sun radiates more energy onto the Earth in a few hours than human society uses in a year – it is just a question of harnessing it in a productive way. The Sun already powers everything on Earth, causing the wind, rain and warmth which shape the world. In addition, the Sun is also responsible for all the fossil fuels we use, having spent millions of years filling up plants with energy which then go on to decompose and be compressed over the eons into oil, gas and coal.

So we have this giant, inexhaustible supply of energy in the sky which bathes us in its benevolence every single day for free, and we have all of these cars and batteries just sitting on the ground waiting to be filled up...

SolarCity is designed to bring the two parts of the chain together. Not only does the company produce the panels themselves at an advanced manufacturing facility in Buffalo, New York, they also install and maintain the panels and wire them into the grid. SolarCity has made itself by far the biggest solar provider in America by becoming a one-stop shop for the entire process.

And now, having merged with Tesla, the electricity generated by the SolarCity panel systems can be hooked up directly with Tesla Powerwall and Powerpack batteries or fed directly into Tesla electric cars. It is now possible to remove yourself from the polluting, fossil fuel-heavy power grid and rely entirely on solar power during the day and clean battery power at night.

The merger also means that production costs are reduced and complete systems can be delivered more quickly. This increased efficiency lowers costs for the end customer and helps Tesla and SolarCity meet their goal of accelerating mass adoption of sustainable technology.

We don’t yet know if the Tesla Model 3 and the integrated power generation and storage tools made possible by SolarCity will be as successful as Elon Musk hopes. A lot could go wrong. On the other hand, a lot could go right, and our atmosphere and living environments could be significantly less polluted in 100 years’ time than they might have otherwise been if Tesla and SolarCity get their way.

Even if they don’t succeed, the evidence we currently have supports the theory that Tesla is effectively scaring the rest of the industry into innovation anyway. If the ripple effects are large enough then the Tesla mission is complete.

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LONDON’S NEW CONNECTION Crossrail – How could it affect property?

Words : Will Leyland | View : Paul Daniels

Not since 1830, some have argued, has a more ambitious rail project been proposed and accepted. Back in 1830, the idea of an underground railway system linking the city of London with its urban railway stations seemed ludicrous. One of the world’s largest and busiest cities was perhaps not the ideal location to build a sprawling railway network underground.

Having to dig deep into the earth, tunnel underneath the city and lay railway tracks provides immense challenges regardless of who’s building it and when. All the more remarkable, then, that such an incredible feat was achieved in the early 19th century when modern engineering had yet to hit the mainstream.

point. Initially rejected a number of times, the underground eventually got approval and has now become one of the most famous and well-used railway networks in the world.

The world’s oldest underground railway system began construction in 1860, eventually opening to the public in 1863. In the first half of the 19th century, the population and physical extent of London grew rapidly and the increasing residential population and the development of a commuting population arriving by train each day led to a high level of traffic congestion, with huge numbers of carts, cabs, and omnibuses filling the roads. In addition, the city welcomed up to 200,000 people each day on foot. The solution, it was eventually agreed, was to build a network of railway stations around the city in which workers and residents were able to freely travel around the city without clogging up the streets to breaking

Amazing facts about the underground include over 1,000 bodies lying underneath Aldgate station, which was built over a plague pit from the 17th century, as well as a ghost station that exists between Tottenham Court Road and Holborn called British Museum which hasn’t been used since 1932. Another ghost station, Down Street, was used as a bunker by Winston Churchill before the War Rooms were built. The Tube travels 43 million miles every 12 months, which is more than a third of the distance to the Sun. One of the first passengers on the Central Line was Mark Twain in 1900. During the war the British Museum was forced to store some of its most valuable items, including the Elgin Marbles, in tunnels on the

The system’s first tunnels were built just below the surface, using the cut-and-cover method; later, smaller, roughly circular tunnels – which gave rise to its nickname, the Tube – were dug through at a deeper level. The system now has 270 stations and 250 miles (400 km) of track. Per year, 1.34 billion people use the network with an incredible 4.8 million per day riding around London deep underground.

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Section of new rail tunnel under construction for the London Crossrail, North Woolwich London

Piccadilly line. During World War II, the tube helped over 200,000 children to escape London and sheltered over 177,000 people.

Now the next large-scale development in what is a quite incredible history is being built. The new Elizabeth Line is planned to open in December 2018, stretching over 118 kilometres (72 miles) of railway line and costing £14.8 billion. Crossrail as it is called is one of Europe’s largest and most expensive pieces of new 21st century infrastructure.

London’s West End in 55 minutes. Rail users at Liverpool Street at the heart of the City of London’s financial district will be able to reach Heathrow Airport to the west of London in just 41 minutes. Commuters in the eastern suburb of Harold Wood will be able to reach Bond Street in just 40 minutes.

The East to West London rail network will run through Berkshire, central London, South Essex and North Kent, and will fully open in December 2019 – 14 years after Parliament first considered a Crossrail Bill. The railway promises to bring an extra 1.5 million people to within 45 minutes of London’s main employment, leisure and business districts.

In putting forward the business case for the project, it has been estimated that Crossrail will bring in roughly £1.97 for every £1 spent on the network.

The ability to reduce journey times, reduce congestion and the ability to reach London more comfortably should, it is argued, bring in more jobs and investment to the city. Crossrail is estimating that 200 million passengers per year will use the new network, which will provide access to 40 new stations and eight new interchanges at key existing stations such as Paddington, Bond Street and Canary Wharf.

The creators of the project estimate that Crossrail will increase the rail capacity of central London by 10%, helping to ease the building congestion that is threatening to bring the world-famous network to a halt.

It’s also aiming to largely reduce the travelling times for those commuting into the city for work with commuters from the Berkshire town of Reading to the West of London being able to reach Tottenham Court Road in

Up to 1,500 passengers will be able to travel aboard a fleet of 66 trains that each consist of nine carriages and measure 200 metres in length. 24 trains will run at peak times in each direction through a central London tunnel section between Paddington and Whitechapel. 12 trains per hour at peak times will run on a South Eastern surface branch between Canary Wharf and Abbey Wood. Similarly, 12 trains per hour will run on an Eastern

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surface section between Shenfield, Stratford and central London.

The construction project is absolutely enormous, and the level of planning, investment and work that has gone into the planning and execution of the new service is astonishing. Here are some facts for you, from the Crossrail official website: Crossrail is Europe’s largest construction project with work starting in May 2009. Over 100 million working hours have been completed on the Crossrail project so far. For just over three years, eight giant tunnel boring machines burrowed below the streets of London to construct 42km of new rail tunnels. Each tunnelling machine was a 1,000 tonne, 150 metre long underground factory with 20 person ‘tunnel gangs’ working in shifts around the clock between 4 May 2012 and 26 May 2015. Over 200,000 tunnel segments were used to line the 42 kilometres of tunnels. More than three million tonnes of excavated material from the tunnels was shipped to Wallasea Island in Essex to create a new 1,500 acre RSPB nature reserve. There are currently more than 10,000 people working across over 40 construction sites. It’s not unusual for development in London to come across a body or two. In March 2013, workers digging the tunnels for Crossrail uncovered 13 skeletons under a road near Charterhouse Square, Farringdon. The bodies were believed to be plague victims from

the 14th Century. Almost a third of Crossrail Ltd’s jobs are filled by women, compared with only 20% in the construction industry as a whole.

Crossrail already is, and will be remembered as, one of the great engineering feats of our generation as the sheer scale and complexity of the project is studied and taken in. Digging brand new, state-of-the-art, tunnels under the surface of a city the size of London, with a huge existing underground network, often requires precision of millimetres.

The sheer capacity of the workforce and equipment alone is enough to make the average person drop their jaw in awe.

With such an impressive and historic project bringing such an incredible increase in travel capacity, there is absolutely no surprise that the areas set to get access to a Crossrail train station have already seen skyrocketing property prices.

According to Crossrail’s own website: “Research shows that from 2008 to 2013, 41% of planning applications within a kilometre of a Crossrail station cited the new railway as a justification for the development proceeding, equating to around three million square feet of residential, commercial and retail space. This as well as potentially helping to create £5.5 billion

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Crossrail station, Canary Wharf London

in added value to residential and commercial real estate along its route between 2012 and 2021”.

Thinking about some of the locations that Crossrail aims to connect to the capital city, we can look at areas such as Reading and areas of Essex, as research shows that those set to benefit the most are those which currently lie furthest away from the centre. This makes perfect sense as these areas, which were previously difficult to commute from, are now subject to large-scale inward migration from those wishing to be within commuting distance of London. Demand, therefore, will rise sharply as supply struggles to keep pace.

The best investment areas, according to Rightmove, include plain but affordable Abbey Wood in south-east London, and the beautiful, desirable Taplow, an affluent commuter town in south Buckinghamshire. A recent report by property consultant CBRE predicts that average prices around Elizabeth Line stations will increase 3.3% per year above local house price growth until the line launches in 2018/19. This suggests an average £133,000 price hike between now and when the first trains run.

Clearly, Crossrail and quick access to the capital are causing huge rises in demand and prices. Predicted house prices in some of the boroughs is staggering. In Woolwich, the top performer, prices are predicted to grow by over a third (39.2%) in five years up to 2020. The other four making up the top five are West Drayton (37.3%), Whitechapel (34%), Slough (33.6%) and Abbey Wood (33.2%).

These are astronomical predictions. Central London and some of its boroughs have been struggling recently, and a recent report from Barratts puts London as the second most expensive city on the planet for renters.

The study, based on analysis of 20 cities according to the percentage of a tenant’s salary needed to rent a one-bedroom apartment, makes for grim reading. It estimates that the average London renter would need to spend approximately 45% of their monthly wage in order to rent a typical one-bedroom apartment charged at £1,250 per month. San Francisco is the only city where tenants spend a higher proportion of their average wage on rent at 47%. The typical cost of a one-bedroom apartment in the Californian city is £2,768 per month.

This has led to concerns about affordability, with many concluding that there will be little time wasted in making these areas that are currently affordable just as out-of-reach as the areas of London already outside of workers’ budgets. The evidence suggests that this will be the case, and Crossrail threatens to introduce the next wave of exodus from previously community-driven areas as young professionals’ price locals out of the market. London, according to a recent study by PricewaterhouseCoopers, will be a majority-renting city (60%) by 2025. This majority is paying for Crossrail through their taxes and, soon, their fares. They will be rewarded with higher rents and house prices. This is, of course, the nature of the game though, and with increased infrastructure and more attractive travel routes come higher prices and higher demand. The office of the Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, is drawing up plans to tackle the crisis and will soon unveil plans to help renters with more affordable prices and help to get on to the property ladder.

Crossrail is one of the most impressive engineering feats ever undertaken in one of the world’s great cities. The sheer size, cost and complexity marks it out as a major achievement. Simply reading some of the incredible facts is enough to make you pause in amazement. Landlords, investors and homeowners will reap huge benefits. Predictions for price growth are anywhere between 36% and 50% before a train even runs across the tracks. Those unaware of Crossrail should start looking now, only 12 months until opening, for their opportunity to get into a competitive market at something close to the ground floor. The concern, as always, is that the big losers will be renters, but as with improvements comes an increase in demand. It seems, certainly on the surface, that paying more to live near this amazing project may well be worth it.

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Inside a new Crossrail station, Canary Wharf, London

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MEDIA CITY

THE WORLD’S LOST CITIES Lands forgotten in time

Words : Emma Martin | View : Romas

Across the world, archaeologists, historians, and antiquarians have been studying the fascinating secrets hidden within ancient ruins for centuries.

Clues left behind by fallen cultures and societies have led to revolutionary discoveries into how some of the world’s greatest and most developed cities and communities have been forgotten in time - their pasts almost entirely erased until being rediscovered, and their lost stories stitched back together piece by piece.

By definition, a lost city is one that has fallen into decline – becoming entirely (or almost entirely) uninhabited, and dropping off the map.

Swallowed by jungle, flooded and lost to sea, deserted by war or famine, or struck by wide-spread disease; these are but some of the ill-fated events that have prompted cities into terminal degeneration.

It is almost impossible for us to imagine a city like London, Tokyo or New York ever becoming abandoned in today’s globally connected climate.

With the complexities of these urban epicentres continually evolving, and our increased ability to document them through new technologies, the concept of a lost city in itself is one of deep curiosity to us all - and one that has been at the centre of myth and legend for millennia.

Myth and legend First told in approximately 360 B.C by philosopher Plato in his dialogues Timaeus and Critias, the legend of Atlantis has captivated historians, architects, and fantasists for thousands of years – but why has a story, with

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origins dating back nearly 2,400 years, remained at the forefront of popular interest; inspiring books, films and a thirst to uncover hidden secrets?

Plato’s myth tells of a utopian island located in the Atlantic Ocean. “Larger than Libya and Asia combined”, it was home to an intelligent race that had transformed Atlantis into a technologically advanced city which boasted incredible architecture, engineering, and commerce.

Atlantis was told to be a great power which held sway over many other nations, and was ruled by 10 Kings, the sons of Poseidon – the Greek god of the sea.

The story tells that the Kings were tyrannical leaders, driven by power, and set on conquering the Mediterranean. According to Plato’s writing, the Atlanteans pressed on with their plans for dominance and took over parts of Libya and the European continent, enslaving the locals. In a story based on good versus evil, the much less advanced ancient Athenians resisted the Atlanteans and, in the end, managed to liberate those who were captive.

The legend tells that shortly after this, ‘in a single day and night of misfortune’, Atlantis sunk into the sea and was lost forever as the Kings of Atlantis had angered the Gods who, in turn, punished the city with great earthquakes and fires.

And whilst there is no proof that Atlantis ever existed, it hasn’t stopped

Statue of Plato from the Academy of Athens, Greece

Angkor Wat Temple, Cambodia

people trying to decipher any clues to its potential whereabouts and as such, Atlantis is but one of many lost cities that have become famed, and the name itself has become synonymous with the concept of the lost city – inspiring a new generation of archaeologists to uncover hidden secrets of forgotten lands.

the Thai invasion in 1431 A.D, the temple and surrounding civilization fell into decline, losing the majority of its population and becoming buried by jungle. It was only when French explorer Henri Mouhot stumbled across it in 1860 did tales of the great Khmer temple spread to the west.

Technological advancement

More than meets the eye Unlike Atlantis however, some lost cities have been found once again through development in resources and historical accounts, proving that this is not only the stuff of myth and legend.

Perhaps one of the most interesting discoveries of the last decade is that of the Lost City of Angkor Wat. Situated in Cambodia’s Northern Province of Siem Reap, Angkor Wat holds the legacy of the powerful Khmer Empire.

Stretching over 500 acres, the World Heritage Site is a true display of architectural brilliance, and one that brings in over US$60m in tourism to Cambodia every year. It has even been lauded as the world’s greatest tourist attraction by Lonely Planet - and it is easy to see why. The largest religious monument in existence, Angkor Wat is striking. Colossal stone pine cones act as a centre-piece for the maze of temples and houses below that are surrounded by a large moat, far beyond anything else that would have existed at the time.

However, there is more to Angkor Wat than meets the eye. Following

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Mouhot’s discovery captivated the imagination, and galvanised a renewed interest in the Cambodian man-made wonder. A growing global awareness combined with the advancement of technology has led archaeologists to uncover the lost story of Angkor Wat. LIDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) is a laser technology that works by shooting super-fast pulses of light onto the ground from helicopters. This revolutionary new equipment studies how the pulses of light bounce back, which can show gradual changes to the landscape, indicating where alterations in the environment may have occurred. This helps investigate areas that may be unreachable by human exploration, either under deep vegetation or obstructed by other elements.

The Cambodian Archaeological Lidar Initiative (CALI), first utilised LIDAR technology in April 2015 to investigate Angkor Wat. Measuring 737 square miles of landscape surrounding the temple has unveiled a medieval megacity which was previously hidden by the encroaching jungle. These astounding findings have positioned the lost city of Angkor Wat as the largest city prior to the Industrial Revolution.

Home to a complex canal system, farms, dams and highways, at the apex of its power this intricate city would have been the largest mecca in Cambodia, built using technologies that before now we didn’t think existed at this point in history. Not to mention it was home to an estimated one million people!

of Pompeii act as a time capsule for historians. Perhaps the most famed fascination that has emerged from the ruins of this UNESCO World Heritage Site is the plaster casts of the victims of Vesuvius who, when the hot ash spilled over the city, were preserved in petrified poses forever more.

Today, Angkor Wat is more important than ever to the people of Cambodia and the Khmer people who live there. A nation plagued by terror, political upheaval and violent protests – the Kingdom of Cambodia has a beating heart in this former cradle of progressive civilisation, and we are better placed than ever before to tell the stories of the people who helped build this magnificent temple which has taken its place as a bucket list attraction for travellers the world over.

It really is a haunting reminder of the natural disaster that led this once great city to become abandoned.

Pompeii was rediscovered in 1748, nearly 2,000 years after being devastated, and has since become a popular site for tourists, welcoming over 2.5 million people a year, making Pompeii one city that truly has been found. However this may be causing more damage than we know.

Preservation Angkor is not the only lost city now hailed as a great tourist attraction, however. Another famous fallen metropolis, Pompeii, is considered one of the most popular places to visit in Italy, and its story is like no other.

Quite literally frozen in time, Pompeii was destroyed in 79 AD when Mount Vesuvius erupted, covering the whole city in burning ash which “poured across the land”, described by one witness as plunging the city into “a darkness…like the black of closed and unlighted rooms.” This created a unique snapshot in time.

Due to the way in which this ancient city was buried under ash, the ruins

Conservationists are becoming more and more concerned about the threat to this World Heritage Site from the sheer numbers of people visiting, with classicist Mary Beard emphasising the significance of maintaining now-found sites of former lost cities, particularly Pompeii which undoubtedly holds the accolade of being the most ‘found’ lost city.

She notes that: “One-third of the town is underground, and that is where it should stay, safe and sound, for the future. Meanwhile we can look after the other two-thirds as best we can, delaying its collapse as far as is reasonable.”

Whilst the temptation to uncover more of the secrets of Pompeii hidden deep beneath ground level is enormous, it is also vital to remember that

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Pompeii, Italy

care must be given to help preserve what we have revealed thus far in order for future generations to be able to learn about the history behind the tragic fall of a once thriving coastal resort.

The fall from power One site that is still in the process of being excavated is that of Madinat Al Zahra, a city that has existed longer in the restoration process than it did in its mere sixty-five years of activity. But that is not to diminish the supremacy of this once wondrous city which controlled the administration of Muslim Spain.

A lavish fortified palace-city, whose name literally translates to ‘the shining city’, Madinat Al Zahra was nothing if not extravagant.

Located beside the Sierra Morena Mountain Range, and surrounded by the striking meadows of the River Guadalquivir, the city was planned with an elegant stepped structure which made the most of the surrounding natural beauty.

Today, only 10% of this great city has been uncovered, and archaeologists are still working to find out more about the once magnificent metropolis – utilising new tele-imaging technology to aid in the process.

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What has been uncovered so far shows how much this ancient palace-city has given to art, culture and architecture. The richly adorned welcome halls and ornate decoration clearly inspired Andalucian style architecture, with characteristics such central patios and courtyards, pools, fountains, and opulent villas.

Certainly, the Caliph spared no expense in the building of his palace which sat atop the highest point of the city, and was built with the most valuable materials available, including marble, ivory and gold.

Whilst it was told that the Caliph Abd-ar-Rahman III al-Nasir built this beautiful city in the 10th century for his favourite wife, in reality the reason for its beginning was more political, and to impress the power of the new independent western Caliphate upon the rest of the world.

The great palace complex of Madinat al-Zahra was eventually abandoned only a few decades after it was established. Political power shifted away from the ruling family and Hisham II al-Mu’ayad, the grandson of the city’s original founder, found Madinat al-Zahra to be nothing more than a lavish prison. A civil war began to rage and the palace-city was forgotten by all and left behind by an evolving world, forgotten in time. Madinat al-Zahra would fall from grace almost as quickly as it had originally been dreamt up.

Over time it was buried beneath mud, and the stories that had once been written by scholars and poets that told of this dazzling city were doubted;

pinned to being the stuff of myth. It was only in 1911, when excavation finally started on the 115-hectare site, that the detailed architecture of the shining city was painstakingly revealed once again.

War and peace The political manoeuvrings and civil war that quickly bought the end of the Madinat Al Zahra Caliphate are a stark reminder to us today that communities facing religious, political, or civil unrest can quickly leave cities deserted – something we’ve seen in modern times with cities like Aleppo which has been at the focus of the Syrian civil war.

The fighting has brought Aleppo full circle, from being one of the largest cities in the Ottoman Empire (and one that has been inhabited since 3rd millennium BC) to, in 2016, having gone through mass evacuation in response to a ceasefire deal and leaving the city decimated by relentless bombing.

However, Aleppo is only one of the cities around the world that have been evacuated, abandoned or destroyed in the recent past – and it would seem that, like forgotten cities of the past, the way they fall in to disuse is how eventually they become forgotten, buried, and only later rediscovered.

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AN ACQUIRED TASTE Controversial architecture

Words : Hannah Wilde | View : Joseph Sohm

Buildings are never just buildings. They are (or rather, should be) a meticulously considered and constructed art form—as artists create their art on canvases or sculptors hone their craft on a block of marble, architects create their masterpieces on landscapes, turning the ordinary into the extraordinary. Renowned architect Steven Holl sums up his profession into four distinct considerations: abstract, use, space and idea. Without one of these four crucial elements, a building becomes lost, redundant: more ancillary than art form.

capturing residents’ anger instead of capturing their hearts. Global Property Scene will consider some of the most controversial pieces of architecture from across the world—some with ill-chosen or tasteless design, some whose design has rendered its use ineffective, and some which were built regardless of need and vehement public objections. As the saying goes: “Beauty is in the eye of the beholder”—but in the below examples, it would be fair to say that these infrastructural feats are loathed rather more than they are loved.

Architecture, when considering all of Holl’s key considerations, can become a much-loved addition to any city landscape, giving the immediate area a unique aesthetic and identity. Equally celebrated architect Lord Norman Foster—the driving force behind such architectural marvels as the Hearst Tower in New York, Hong Kong’s HSBC Buildings and the restoration of Berlin’s Reichstag among countless others—writes a love letter to his profession in his interview with The European Magazine, adulating: “Architecture is a connection with the past…the revitalization of historic buildings, repurposing them for a new generation. Architecture can communicate memory, but it can also communicate values and a sense of place”.

The Portland Building—Oregon, USA

However, when architecture goes bad, it can become a permanent source of nationwide vexation, causing heated debates and rousing protests,

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Perhaps the most ostentatious (which many could translate as ‘gaudy’) building on the list is The Portland Building, which resides in its namesake town of Portland, Oregon. Commissioned as a tribute to the city’s proud Portlanders, the brainchild of late American architect Michael Graves certainly screams patriotism, but perhaps not in the way the city’s residents would have wanted. Instead of a celebration of Oregon’s largest city, what residents actually received in their civic building was a garish shrine to Postmodernist architecture, with giant red columns, soaring blackout windows and decorative ribbons aplenty. In what Arch Daily calls “‘more is more’ quasi-classical design”, many have drawn architectural parallels to the grandiloquent style heavily featured in the architecture of Nazi Germany’s Third Reich. It certainly fits that distinctive and regimented

Antilia Mumbai, India

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pre-World War II style: hints of neoclassicism, vernacular stylings, and more utilitarian than aesthetically-pleasing—The Portland Building ticks every box.

Sagrada Familia, Barcelona

Such unflattering comparisons have not gone down well with Portlanders, with the building a continuous source of derision ever since its completion in 1982 (at a cost of US$29 million). Called “one of the most hated buildings in America” by Travel + Leisure Magazine in 2008, such negativity certainly calls into question the building’s future on Portland’s skyline. There have long been whispers of demolishing the offending building which have gained momentum in recent years, especially in the wake of publicised news that repairs in the building could cost anywhere between US$95mUS$195m to complete. Naturally its architect always stood by his project, unwavering in his staunch support even in the face of adversity: “The whole idea of tearing the building down, it’s like killing a child”.

Now that Michael Graves is no longer able to vouch for his beloved Portland Building, it remains to be seen whether his legacy will live on in Portland, or whether the division will end once and for all.

Sagrada Familia—Barcelona, Spain Equally a sore point for residents is Barcelona’s Sagrada Familia, a huge structure in the heart of the Spanish capital that has been in construction since 1882. Almost seen as a running joke between Catalonians, what was once destined to be a stunning Roman Catholic basilica is now the world’s longest-running construction project, currently in its 135th year and costing in the region of €25m per year.

Although in its incomplete state, Sagrada Familia still attracts millions of tourists each and every year—although not all of these are keen aficionados. The building seems to have stirred up strong feelings in the creatives of the world, with author George Orwell (with tongue firmly in cheek) declaring that “the Anarchists [of the Spanish Civil War] showed bad taste in not blowing it up when they had the chance”. Going one step further, artist Pablo Picasso disliked the basilica that much that he wished to send original architect “[Antoni] Gaudi and the Sagrada Familia to Hell”.

Strong words, but architecture of this grandeur is capable of—and does—incite some very strong reactions.

The fate of the Sagrada Familia is still hotly contested, but if the project’s current architects have their way, the building will be eventually completed by 2026 to coincide with the centenary of the death of the original mastermind Gaudi, which will bring the overall construction timeline to 144 years. Whether the building ever reaches completion only time will tell, but it seems that in the Sagrada Familia will remain on Barcelona’s skyline to irk its residents at least for the foreseeable future.

Antilia Residential Tower—Mumbai, India It may come as a surprise to some that the home of the fifth-richest man in the world has featured in this list—homes of the ultra-rich generally tend to be luxurious affairs, adorned in white marble and pillars as far as the eye can see. However, the residence of Mukesh Amban (business magnate behind petrochemical giant Reliance Industries Limited, and India’s equivalent to Richard Branson) is a far cry from the type of house you’d see lining the streets of Beverly Hills.

Dubbed the most expensive private residence in the world (valued at a massive US$1 billion), the Ambani residence is a 27-storey tower 550 feet high, designed by the architects responsible for the design of the Mandarin Oriental hotel chain. While this has suggestions of grandeur in itself, the resultant tower has often been likened to the well-known game ‘Jenga’ thanks to its slapdash appearance. This is deliberate, or so says the architects and owners, in order to ensure that no two floors are alike in either floor-space or building materials. According to Forbes, the idea was “to blend styles and architectural elements so spaces give the feel of consistency, but without repetition”, and the design a purposeful nod to the Indian tradition of Vaastu: “Much like Feng Shui, it is said to move energy beneficially through the building”. Whatever the reason, it can be agreed almost unanimously that the building is neither conventional, nor aesthetically pleasing (from the outside, at least).

However, its questionable external aesthetic isn’t the only thing that makes Antilia Residential Tower a controversial building—it is the sheer opulence of Mr Ambani’s home that irks Mumbai residents the most. What the exterior lacks in beauty, the interior certainly makes up for in decadence:

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Al Wakrah Stadium—Doha, Qatar ©Zaha Hadid Architects

think a 6-storey parking garage, no less than 3 helipads, 9 private elevators, a ballroom with 80% of its ceiling space adorned with crystal chandeliers, an indoor and outdoor bar (despite the family’s abstinence from alcohol), a cursory swimming pool and yoga studio, a four-storey open garden and atrium, a cinema, and even an ‘entourage room’ for the use of the building’s 600 staff—all of which sits atop a floor-space larger than the Palace of Versailles. This is not inclusive of the 400,000 sqft of top-floor family residential space within Antilia Residential Tower, which alone is a massive 400 times the size of the average family home in Mumbai. But unlike the average family home in Mumbai, a selection of Mrs. Nita Ambani’s favourite rare materials are a frequent addition across every floor, from crystal and marble to diamonds and mother-of-pearl.

As if this wasn’t shocking enough, Antilia Residential Tower was built adjacent to the Golbar slum in central Mumbai, which houses 26,000 of Mumbai’s poorest families across its 140 acres. Whispers of such lavish exorbitance directly overlooking such poverty have grown deafening ever since the building emerged on Mumbai’s landscape in January 2009, with many onlookers criticising its owner’s cultural insensitivity. A sociologist at New Delhi’s Jawaharlal Nehru University opined that “such wealth can be inconceivable [in Mumbai], the home of some of Asia’s worst slums”, leading to criticism that such affluence, rather than to show off, should be

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used to help others who are most in need, like the residents of the Golbar slum cast into shadow by Mukesh Ambani’s immovable legacy.

Al Wakrah Stadium—Doha, Qatar Next up is a creation by renowned architect Zaha Hadid, the mastermind behind such infrastructural pieces de resistance as the Guangzhou Opera House in China and the Sheikh Zayed Bridge in Abu Dhabi. However, arguably her most controversial building is one that has not yet completed—the Al Wakrah Stadium in Doha, one of five stadia currently in construction for the equally controversial 2022 FIFA World Cup, hosted in a country whose average temperatures during the summer months can reach anywhere between 38-45 °C (100-113 °F). This seemingly innocent stadium, set to host one of the largest footballing tournaments in the world in just over 7 years’ time, is anything but innocent—the Al Wakrah has received criticism on two fronts: aesthetically, and altruistically.

First and foremost, media outlets in their thousands have speculated on the structure’s unique aesthetic, with The Guardian likening Al Wakrah to “a futuristic bicycle helmet”. However, by far the simile that has gained the most traction of late is the rather acute observation that the stadium somewhat resembles a part of the female anatomy, a likening which (while

certainly uncouth) is not entirely dismissible. The Guardian goes as far as to call the stadium “a great vulvic bulge”, which is perhaps not what Hadid had in mind when planning her next architectural marvel.

Furthermore, questionable aesthetics aside, both the stadium and architect came under fire when it came to light that over 1,000 construction workers have died during the construction of infrastructure for the FIFA World Cup—when asked if she was going to add safeguards in place to ensure the safety of construction employees on Al Wakrah, a rather bullish Hadid commented: “It’s not my duty as an architect to look at it”. That may well be the case, but the resultant firestorm that amassed from the flippant comment had many affronted members of the public and press alike commenting that, from a humanitarian point of view, it should be everyone’s duty to ensure adequate working conditions for all.

Critics say that for one so experienced, Hadid should know better, with many an architect expecting more from a recipient of the Pritzker Architecture Prize (the architectural equivalent of a Nobel Prize), the first female recipient of the Royal Gold Medal from the Royal Institute of British Architects, and a damehood from Queen Elizabeth II for her services to architecture to boot. However, the stadium isn’t Zaha Hadid’s first architectural faux pas—widely publicised as the architect behind the

aquatics centre for the 2012 London Olympics, her design when completed had one major flaw. The natatorium was dominated by a curved roof, a curvature which meant that, once completed, a large proportion of the higher-tiered seats were unable to see the pool.

Although a spokesperson for Zaha Hadid Architects comments that “the brief was to provide 5,000 spectator seats with uninterrupted views of the 10m diving platform events [and] the centre actually provides over 8,000”, this is at best a cautionary tale of what happens when style triumphs over functionality, any architect’s worst nightmare. To add insult to injury, the aquatics centre landed in even more hot water by going a massive £178m over budget, raising the cost 137% from £75m to £253m.

These are just a few architectural controversies currently dividing the architectural world. Architecture, much like fine art, is all subjective and entirely dependent on the whimsy of the individual. However, whether a building is controversial because of its unattractive appearance or from a social, cultural or political standpoint, one thing is for sure—love them or hate them, there are millions of buildings around the world that are controversial for their own reasons, loved and hated by spectators in equal measure. Only the beholder can decide what side of the fence they sit on.

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THE FUTURE FOR HUMANITY? Megacities

Words : Alex Timperley | View : Algol

A megacity is usually defined as a metropolitan area with a population of more than ten million people across either a single area or several areas which converge. Megacities span the globe, with 38 existing from Tokyo to Delhi to London to Los Angeles. One in eight of the world’s urban dwellers currently live in these 38 megacities.

There seems to be something about the idea of a megacity which inspires unease in our collective dreamscape. Time and again the megacity has been the backdrop for the sort of dystopian stories which make you fear the future. Cities such as the futuristic Los Angeles of Bladerunner or Mega-City One from Judge Dredd both present the future of humanity as a cramped, gloomy and fearful reality where tens of millions of people are trapped in tiny apartments and miserable poverty. It always seems to be overcast in the megacity of popular culture.

However, this is a fear that we might have to overcome. As more and more people are born, our living arrangements will have to become more and more complex. This is not a trend which shows any sign of tailing off in the foreseeable future, and it seems likely that the megacity is set to become the dominant habitat for humans by the latter half of the 21st century.

Following the Industrial Revolution, cities began to take over the world: only 3% of people lived in cities in 1800, a number that is expected to rise to almost 70% by 2050. People have been fleeing the countryside in greater and greater numbers for 200 years in pursuit of more and better jobs, better healthcare, the desire to live in social and economic centres, and the appetite to have access to better education.

The growth of the world’s urban population has been heavily weighted toward more recent times. As late as 1950, approximately 750 million people were city dwellers, but this number would increase to almost four billion over the next 65 years. In 2007, the urban population exceeded the rural population for the first time in the long 200,000 year span of human history.

So what we are really talking about when considering the spread of megacities is humanity’s final transformation from a rural society into an urban one. This is a remarkable transition, an almost unbelievably rapid one in evolutionary terms, and it is quite incredible that those of us alive today are able to see it.

The majority of the spread of urbanisation will take place in Asia, South America and Africa, for obvious reasons. These are the places where

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there is still a large rural population available to move into cities, and also the places which are developing fastest. India, China and Nigeria alone are set to account for 37% of the growth of the world’s urban population.

When the rural population finally peaks in the 2020s, hundreds of thousands of years after anatomically modern humans appeared, it will be because there are significant shifts in these parts of the globe.

We are entering a new age, and the obvious question is: how will the rise of megacities affect us?

The potential pitfalls The move to cities may be inevitable, but it is by no means without potential pitfalls. As existing cities continue to grow, and new megacities proliferate, we will have to deal with these problems on a bigger scale than ever before.

During the Industrial Revolution, diseases found it easier to spread thanks to a chronic lack of hygiene, non-existent sanitation and the fact that people at the time had no basic knowledge of what caused diseases.

Many theories were put forward as to how illness spread, such as proximity to bad smells, but no-one nailed it until a London doctor called John Snow realised that cholera was spread via polluted water and laid the groundwork for modern epidemiology – the study and analysis of the patterns, causes and effects of diseases.

In the meantime however, while all this was being worked out, cities proved to be the perfect place for diseases to spread. People in industrial Britain suffered through four separate mass outbreaks of cholera in the space of 30 years in the early nineteenth century. Smallpox thrived in places where people lived in close proximity to each other even after Edward Jenner created a vaccine in 1796. Tuberculosis affected those who lived in damp and dirty conditions – almost everyone in early industrial cities – and it is estimated that it caused one third of all deaths in Britain between 1800 and 1850. All of that is without considering other killers such as the Black Death plague which killed millions and was made possible by people living in close urban quarters.

In many ways the history of cities and the history of disease cannot be separated. A large number of people crammed into a small, damp, unhygienic place is the perfect breeding ground for microbes, rats, fleas and viruses.

As our cities get bigger and bigger, and travelling between them gets easier, keeping people healthy will become even more challenging than it already is. The next smallpox or bubonic plague may not originate in a city, but it will almost certainly mutate and spread there if history is any guide.

Populations live and die together, and smart city planning will be vital in order to try and avoid this problem in the future.

Perhaps the biggest upcoming challenge is with regard to the food chain and supply to these new megacities. Urbanised populations have different and more intensive eating patterns to rural populations which are, on the whole, less sustainable. This leads to a longer and more complicated food chain. Beijing, for instance, has a food chain which can reach up to 800 miles outside the city for just the basics which its populations needs to survive on an urban diet. Manhattan is another great example. Food markets in New York used to almost exclusively rely on produce from the nearby states and coastlines, but today the city relies on millions of tons of food being flown in from all over the world every year.

In addition, this sort of food chain relies on a whole logistical network of refrigeration and electricity. Does this not all sound extremely fragile?

To compound the issue, urban expansion often occurs on areas of prime cropland, and the growth of megacities is certain to follow this trend. The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, one of the world’s most comprehensive scientific journals, has projected a loss of up to 2.5% of the world’s croplands due to the growth of megacities. This loss will be concentrated in the extra-fertile land in Africa and Asia and will consequently cause a loss of between 3%-4% of global food production.

It is an inexact number, but think of it as food for more than 200 million people. Egypt is an extreme example of this, with 34% of its total farmland set to be built over, leaving the country open to international food shocks.

The loss of cropland goes hand in hand with the general loss of habitat which will come with the rise of the megacity. The dangers to the natural

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Futuristic city render

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Futuristic city render

environment through climate change are already well known. Less well known is the idea that one in five species of animal is likely to become extinct by the end of the century. This puts environmental concerns front and centre in the future if we care at all about the natural world – let’s assume we do.

Megacities aren’t responsible for all this, but they certainly do not help.

The amount of material needed to build enough homes for all of humanity is prodigious. The Guardian recently reported that China has used as much cement in the last few years as the USA used in the entire 20th century. Alongside cement, megacities need glass and silicon. All three materials use sand as an essential component, and it has become a valuable commodity. Every apartment block and every road we build uses sand – it is the essential ingredient that allows our society to exist.

Hundreds of millions of tons are mined every year for use in construction, and the Pulitzer Center has uncovered a “global war” for sand which leaves river beds, beaches, lakes and oceans stripped bare and landscapes in the developing world devastated as far apart as China and Kenya.

Concentrating more and more people into a small space seems to leave us somewhat exposed to everything from new diseases to the total destruction of our environment. An inflexible living situation could leave less tolerance for disaster. Ironically, this mirrors the issues in crop diversity. If you only plant one type of harvest then a single plant disease can cause disaster, such as what happened in the 19th century Irish Potato Famine. If you keep all your eggs in one basket, they are liable to break. If you keep all your humans in one type of city...

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It is worth considering. But, is the move into megacities going to be all bad? Are we simply making ourselves a hostage to fortune, or should we be looking forward to this a bit more? There is evidence to say that a human society based around megacities might actually end up being more peaceful and less violent than the world is right now – on a macro scale at least.

A more peaceful future There is a strong body of archaeological evidence to suggest that the move to living in cities greatly reduced the level of violence in human societies. Whether this was because of tighter social regulation or that humans simply had to learn to cooperate with strangers when they spent all day in close contact, the fact is that the urbanisation of mankind has been a strong factor in suppressing the human urge to do violence to each other.

It is likely that the rise of cities codified our violence and gave states an increasing monopoly on it, thereby suppressing our most violent urges from day to day. This is why a terrorist attack in Norway or France leads to candlelit vigils rather than a murderous rampage from the citizenry. This is why, even though violence is still a feature in life, the deadly patterns of raids and massacres which characterised human history for so long are almost unheard of in modern urbanised nations. Wars around the world get more media coverage than ever before, but fewer people are dying as a result of conflict than ever before.

As cities continue to grow and humanity becomes an urbanised species, it seems likely that this trend will continue. The lessons of declining violence

over the last few millennia coincide closely with the growth of urbanisation and, unless something drastic changes, the more people who live in close proximity the less violence we will have.

What a time to be alive We are witnessing, in real time, the final conversion of the human race from a hunter-gatherer society to an urban, city dwelling species.

Hundreds of thousands of years down the line, our entire system of living and civilisation has completely changed and a nomadic life on the plains of Africa feels a very long way away. So how are we meant to proceed?

Given the fact that our society is fundamentally changing, it seems naïve to imagine that we won’t have to change our lifestyles to adapt. After all, adapting to meet challenges may well be the most human trait of all.

We will have to look to the lessons of history to keep ourselves healthy, and we may be forced to leave the days of unending plenty behind. A more mature attitude towards the food chain and our environment will be absolutely essential if we are to ensure the survival of the species in a recognisable form. Would this really be such a bad thing?

We can live very well without asparagus and strawberries being available throughout the winter months and, despite what we may choose to believe, eating cheap meat every day is not actually essential.

We are becoming an urban species, moving to our megacities, and it makes a certain amount of sense that we will have to stop living as though we are all still on the farm.

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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: $788,014* • Average price per sqft: $630

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

Los Angeles, USA • Median sales price: $611,600* • Average price per sqft: $455

New York, USA Top 5 cheapest countries to live: (Correct as of March 2017) Source: Time

• Median sales price: $788,529* • Average price per sqft: $631

5. Kazakhstan Local purchasing power is 38.2% lower Rent is 88.9% cheaper Groceries are 74.8% cheaper Local goods and services are 68.7% cheaper

4. Saudi Arabia Local purchasing power is 33.6% higher Rent is 85.9% cheaper Groceries are 56.4% cheaper Local goods and services are 49.4% cheaper

3. Kosovo Local purchasing power is 33.8% lower Rent is 91.5% lower Groceries are 75.8% cheaper Local goods and services are 72.6% cheaper

2. India

Sao Paulo, Brazil • Median sales price: $388,750* • Average price per sqft: $311

Local purchasing power is 20.9% lower Rent is 95.2% cheaper Groceries are 74.4% cheaper Local goods and services are 74.9% cheaper

1. South Africa Local purchasing power is 26.9% higher Rent is 87.5% cheaper Groceries are 71% cheaper Local goods and services are 65.8% cheaper

Note > Local purchasing power references the average salary compared with New York. > Rent refers to prices in New York > Groceries references average prices in New York City. > Consumer price references the price of local goods and services to that of New York City.

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Cape Town, South Africa • Median sales price: $274,000* • Average price per sqft: $219

Singapore Moscow, Russia • Median sales price: $633,750* • Average price per sqft: $531

Dubai, UAE • Median sales price: $588,375* • Average price per sqft: $470

• Median sales price: $2,216,250* • Average price per sqft: $1,773

Sydney, Australia • Median sales price: $1,342,875* • Average price per sqft: $1,074

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KNIGHT KNOX

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WHAT’S THE ALTERNATIVE? Gold

Words : Michael Smith | View : Allstars

To many, banking used to stand as a testament to both security and long-term financial growth, yet in recent memory it has done the exact opposite. Many hardworking people found themselves climbing out of the car wreckage created by a banking industry fuelled by greed and quick wins. Even the financial regulation commissions put in place by governments seemed to simultaneously fall asleep at the wheel.

As the dust settled, many found their retirement funds significantly lighter, and had to sit and watch the banking industry hit the factory reset button having regained balance through government handouts. The 2008 crisis, created through a convoluted property market and riddled by collateralised debt obligations (a type of structured asset-backed security encompassing the mortgage and mortgage-backed security), should stand as a stark reminder of the real risks the banks are willing expose the public to. Yet as we all move on with our lives, the banks’ hunger is beginning to take control, with a mooted return to the glory days of heavily loaded mortgage bond opportunities. A “bespoke tranche opportunity” is its new name, and I’m sure in time it will receive the triple A rating it needs to help even the most difficult speculator over the line.

For those of us who have a memory that spans more than 10 years back, there is a sentiment that if money is to be risked it should be in something tangible. One of the main points we try to convey in Global Property Scene is this intrinsic benefit of property investment. It’s not just a number held on some virtual system, you’re buying into a physical object that has been in demand for centuries. In truth, the only real drawback is the entry level price. For many, it is too high.

Gold, one of the world’s most coveted materials, has long been a popular trading tool. It first entered circulation around 560BC when King Croesus of Lydia created the first-known gold coins. People were quick to adopt this new currency, and gold coins have continued as legal tender ever since.

Much like the world’s other currencies, gold fluctuates and can sometimes see significant decline. Some financial advisors would argue that gold has proven to be a poor investment option, having seen its value plummet towards the end of 2015. Its final value of $1,062 represented a 31.6 per cent decline spanning the last five years.

Gold as an investment can also prove off-putting if you’re looking for a regular return, similar to that achieved by bonds and equities. If you buy at a time of rising rates, the value can stagnate as interest dissipates literally overnight.

It can be hard to ignore gold’s recent dive in value, but the value doesn’t tell the entire story. Whilst investors in the short-term are unlikely to see any notable returns, the long-term backer would reference gold’s historic store of value, something nations around the world will continue to utilise.

In one of the most publicised gold exchanges in recent memory, Gordon Brown illustrated the risks of selling gold at the wrong time. As Chancellor of the Exchequer he was tasked with diversifying the assets of the UK’s reserves away from gold, which was deemed to be too volatile. He decided to sell more than half of the UK’s gold reserves, at the time

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1kg gold bar

representing a whopping 395 tonnes. The gold, sold through a series of auctions between 1999 and 2002, raised roughly $3.476 billion. This figure may seem significant until you discover gold’s value at the time sat at a lowly $275 an ounce. That price is 354% down on today’s value, and could have generated a further US$10bn for the UK’s economy. Selling so much at such a low point in the precious metals price cycle garnered much criticism, proving it’s often advisable to hold on to gold for as long as possible.

Should you invest now?

Despite some of its shortcomings, gold is still an asset that can hold up during economic difficulty. With bonds and equities feeling the effect of interest rate changes, gold’s value will often see a rise when new economic conditions come into play. Much of this can be accredited to gold’s long-term store of value, and a track record going back thousands of years.

Much of the western world’s interest rates have seen little change over the previous five years, hence the fall in value. However, in the first half of 2016 the gold price started to gain some real traction. With the UK looking to leave the EU, and an unlikely candidate entering the White

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House, investors have retreated to the perceived security of gold, especially as values had grown by over 20% towards the end of 2016.

The falling value of the dollar helped gold push on further, as the precious metal is always expressed in the currency.

Track record If we look at the precious metal’s performance over the last ten years, we see a very positive picture. Late 2007 you would expect to pay around $580 for an ounce of gold, early 2017 the price now sits at $1,250 – a 115.52% increase. To put this figure in perspective, the FTSE 100 only grew by 4.8% over the same period.

Guide to investing The most utilised methods for investing in gold is by purchasing either coins or bullion. Both can be obtained through your traditional gold dealer who offers a similar service to that seen when exchanging foreign currency. You can also use one of the growing number of online services such as GoldMadeSimple and BullionVault, two of the early adopters. They don’t just offer the purchase and exchange, they can offer secure storage at a low monthly cost. The beauty of these services is you can invest small

amounts of money whilst costs remain low due to an all-in-one service.

The gold won’t ever cross your hands, but will stand safe and insured. The Royal Mint is one of the major platforms to simplify the process of investing in gold. Established in September 2014, the service boosted trade by 57% proving strong investor appetite in the sector.

Weights When you think of gold you think bars, but even the smallest can prove expensive. With a single ounce costing $1,205.44*, a kilo bar would set you back $42,520.25*. Therefore, a large proportion of investors look to back coins instead, the most popular of which are Sovereigns, Kruggerands and Maple Leafs. Sovereign coins are currently trading at $303.66*, whereas Kruggerand prices stand at $1,236.25*.

Alternatives There are other methods to investing that don’t just rely on your buying or selling bullion or coins directly. Exchanging trade commodities similar to the methods used to exchange trade funds is one alternative. These investments simply track the progress of gold but can offer leveraged returns or the opportunity to short the price.

It is important to understand the risks of this method before proceeding, so I would recommend speaking to a broker who will guide you through the exchange traded commodities that are physical (buying gold), and synthetic (mimicking the price) options.

You can look to back the gold mines that supply the market. They too see the benefit of the demand because they’re supplying the commodity at the raw price. The mines are considered the most high-risk option as their returns are hit first when the prices fall. Mining costs have also risen due to the difficulty extracting the raw material in increasingly dangerous locations. If you invest in mining, be sure to keep an eye out for a surge in exchange traded funds that track the gold price. This could be an indication of imminent value decline.

In summary, its best to begin small, mainly with the purchase of coins to get a feel for the fluctuating market. Once you begin to see a small return and have a better understanding of the exchange process, you can look sample riskier but potentially more lucrative options. *Gold prices correct as of 13th March 2017

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STUDENT ACCOMMODATION IN THE NORTHERN POWERHOUSE APARTMENTS FROM

£89,995

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.

Do off-plan properties come with warranties?

I am purchasing a property and would like to use my own solicitor, but the developer has suggested that I use their appointed lawyer.

Am I bound to use this other company if I want to continue with the purchase?

A. In the UK, for the first two years of purchase from completion, the developer is responsible for fixing all defects. After this period has ended, all new homes are covered by a warranty and insurance-style guarantee for the subsequent eight years through an approved provider.

This warranty will not cost you anything, as it is the legal requirement of the house builder to organise this cover. Dependent on the provider, a warranty may cover you for: > The builder having to remedy any issues that are identified as not meeting the technical requirements of the warranty provider; > Any structural defects within the following eight years, including any issues with double-glazing, internal plastering and staircases; A small point to note is that the warranty on the building does not negate the need for home insurance.

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

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A. The simple answer is no, you are not tied into using a specific solicitor.

However, the solicitor that the developer is recommending you use will have a vast amount of knowledge in this particular area, that your personal solicitor will probably not have. Buy-to-let property is considered a specialist area and, as such, the solicitors that the developers work with will have years of experience in this types of sales. Questions and queries that may seem appropriate for your solicitor to raise on your behalf can delay the exchange and completion process, meaning that your purchase has a higher risk of falling through.

The recommended solicitors will have processed hundreds of buy-to-let properties and will likely be able to answer any and all queries that you may have. There is also often a time limit within which to proceed to exchange of contracts, and if you employ the services of a panel solicitor then they will be aware of this and work to the sometimes tight timescales, thus facilitating your purchase as smoothly as possible.

ASK THE EXPERT Paul Thompson, Pugh Auctions

Words : Hannah Wilde

Q.

Q.

What does a typical day at a property auction look like?

What kind of people usually attend property auctions—first-time buyers, home-movers or investors?

A. Generally, we launch the auction catalogue online around four weeks before the auction event. We provide full details of properties to be offered including photographs, descriptions and legal packs. So we arrange viewings, deal with offers and all manner of enquiries in this very busy period.

On the day itself, potential buyers enter the room from around 9:30am, using the time until the auction at around midday to do some final checks on the properties’ details and legal packs and also talk to surveyors. As we have around 200 lots available on the day, the auctions (which start at 12 noon) can still be going strong four or five hours later.

Q. Why do people buy at auction?

A. Auctions are popular with house-buying communities—whether first-time buyers or investors—because auctions offer a level of certainty you don’t generally get when buying a property through a traditional high-street estate agent. Once the gavel comes down, this signifies the end of the bidding and also exchange of contracts between the vendor and the winning bidder so you know the property is yours.

Q.

A. There is no fixed profile for attendees at property auctions: these events generally attract the whole spectrum of property buyers, from first-time homeowners all the way through to portfolio investors. Although each auction is different, it’s not unusual for each event to attract up to 1,000 people from all walks of life.

Q. Can you get any kind of finance for purchasing a property at auction, or is it predominantly cash buyers?

A. Specialist lenders have always existed in the marketplace to lend specifically against properties purchased at auction but, in response to the strength of the auction market of late, the appetite of high-street banks has also grown for this kind of niche lending. However, although on the day of the auction you generally only need 10% of the property’s purchase value to secure the property, it is advisable to have a plan in place as to how you are going to finance the remainder of the property—whether through a lender or whether through self-funding.

Q. Do you have any ‘top tips’ for investors looking to buy a property at auction?

Which properties are typically the most in-demand at an auction?

A. Like the wider property market, demand is high for both commercial and residential property. There has been continued strong demand across all sectors, just one of the side effects of the widespread supply/demand imbalance across the entire industry. To this end, we have remained unaffected by external market factors like Brexit and the rise in buy-to-let stamp duty, simply because of investor appetite for auction properties.

A. I would always recommend completing all due diligence on a lot you’re intending to bid on before the auction, so for example going to view the property and seeking specialist advice from surveyors, conveyancers or lenders. All information is available prior to the action day, so be sure to research, research, research!

Another top tip is to be prudent with your finances—work out a minimum and maximum budget you are prepared to spend, and stick to it. The worst thing you can do is get caught in a bidding war that goes way beyond your budget. So above all the main advice I can give is: go to the auction with a plan, and don’t deviate!

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SHOULD I MOVE TO EDINBURGH? Words : Hannah Wilde | View : Aleksandr Vrublevskiy

There’s a lot that can be said about Scotland’s capital (and arguably most famous) city. Located on Scotland’s southern shore, Edinburgh is home to nearly 465,000 people, making it the country’s second most populous city behind Glasgow. And it’s no wonder that nearly half a million people call this city home—Edinburgh is shrouded in history and intrigue, is a place of literary importance (both modern and classic), and boasts architecture of such stunning beauty that it can only be seen to be believed.

Recording human habitation as early as c.8500 B.C., Edinburgh has always been at the forefront of cultural significance. So the legend goes, Edinburgh is built on the site of an extinct volcano, and is framed by 7 hills (the hills of Carlton, Corstorphine, Craiglockhart, Braid and Blackford, as well as Castle Rock and the famous Arthur’s Seat), giving rise to the allusion of the 7 Hills of Rome. As a city with strong geological ties, it is unsurprising therefore that nature is ubiquitous in this historic city.

Edinburgh is home to some 112 parks, has more trees per head than any other UK city, and has the lowest levels of air pollution of 10 largest UK cities (thanks in large part to the 70km of traffic-free cycle paths that criss-cross the city). This crispness of air and greenness of city could go

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some way to explaining why Edinburgh residents are the happiest in the UK (with an unprecedented 97% satisfaction rate), again leaps and bounds ahead of other UK cities.

As a city with more Listed buildings than anywhere else in the world (with some 47,400 Listed buildings, 8% of which are Category A), Edinburgh is an architect’s ultimate fantasy. Majestic centuries-old buildings in their weathered, neutral colours stand proudly alongside state-of-the-art modern architecture, and the transition is almost seamless. Some architectural highlights include the Scott Monument, a 200ft nod to author Sir Walter Scott, the city’s most iconic landmark Edinburgh Castle (which attracts 2 million visitors annually), and the crown-spired St. Giles’ Cathedral, complete with stunning 12th century stained-glass windows. To truly absorb the city’s breath-taking beauty, a 251m trek up Arthur’s Seat is advisable—a vantage point beyond compare, offering brave orienteers a panoramic vista of the entire city in all its splendour.

However, in the midst of this historic and picturesque city beats the heart of a thriving cosmopolitan metropolis. By far Scotland’s shining star,

Old town Edinburgh, Scotland

Edinburgh has the strongest economy of any UK city outside London, thanks in large part to its dynamic financial services sector (also the UK’s largest outside the capital). Many of the city’s skilled professionals were educated at The University of Edinburgh, an incredible university ranked an impressive 17th in the world—an educational foothold that could explain why Edinburgh has the highest percentage of professionals in the UK, with a massive 43% of residents holding a degree-level or professional qualification.

Although Edinburgh is seen as a beacon of education and employment potential, it definitely doesn’t have a rigid “all work and no play” mentality: Edinburgh is a city that certainly knows how to let its hair down after a long day at the office. The city is constantly abuzz with social and cultural events, home to the world-renowned Fringe Festival (the world’s largest annual international arts festival) and many others besides. Edinburgh’s cultural calendar begins and ends each year on 1st January, with the city’s iconic Hogmanay festival, which is known as the largest New Year’s street party in the world, heralding in the New Year in style with live music and fireworks aplenty. Edinburgh’s Hogmanay also sets the scene for the

world’s largest rendition of the New Year favourite Auld Lang Syne, with a 100,000-strong crowd every year joining hands at the stroke of midnight to belt out the classic as one.

And the fun doesn’t stop there—each and every year Edinburgh hosts festival after festival, with the city more than earning its reputation as “an international creative and culture centre”. Kicking off its spring/summer events calendar is the Edinburgh International Science Festival, a two-week event normally taking place in April in celebration of the world of science. Established in 1989, the International Science Festival was the first of its kind in the world, and is still to this day Europe’s largest science event, holding on average 200 events across two weeks and attracting over 90,000 attendees. This is followed on just two months later by the Edinburgh International Film Festival (EIFF), a festival cited as the world’s oldest continuous film festival, now in its 71st year. Each and every year this celebration of world cinema shows over 150 feature films from over 50 countries worldwide, and describes itself as “world renowned for discovering and promoting the very best in international cinema”. The festival attracts hundreds of well-known actors, as well as a legion of over

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Edinburgh, Scotland

1,400 industry delegates, filmmakers and press alike.

If art, theatre and literature are more your cup of tea, Edinburgh more than rises to the occasion. The end of July all the way through to August is dedicated to the arts, with Edinburgh Art Festival, Edinburgh Fringe Festival and Edinburgh International Book Festival all happening one after the other. Edinburgh Arts Festival is heralded as “the UK’s largest annual celebration of visual arts”, one that continually draws over 250,000 visitors each year to view the festivals’ 40+ exhibitions across the city’s leading galleries, museums and artistic spaces. And perhaps the highlight of Edinburgh’s cultural calendar is its standout event, the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. Known as the largest arts festival in the world, and one that bolstered the careers of such well-known entertainers as Hugh Laurie, Billy Connolly and Emma Thompson to name just a few, 2016’s instalment of this award-winning festival proudly hosted over 50,000 performances of 3,269 shows in almost 300 venues across the city, enthralling an audience of 2.29 million ticketholders.

In addition, as the world’s first UNESCO City of Literature, Edinburgh has

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plenty to keep even the most avid bibliophiles away from their books.

Edinburgh International Book Festival (taking place in mid- to late-August) is a celebration of the written word, a truly diverse schedule of over 750 events designed purely for literature lovers, including debates, book signings, author meet-and-greets, as well as makeshift bookshops that line the picturesque Charlotte Square Gardens. Attendees can’t help but immerse themselves with other aficionados, an event styled as “a place where audiences and authors gather to share ideas, have thought-provoking discussions, be entertained, informed, enthralled and challenged”.

Such a festival befits the stunning city of Edinburgh, with all its ties to the world of literature. Perhaps Edinburgh’s most famous literary export is Harry Potter, the intellectual brainchild of Edinburgh resident J.K. Rowling.

To this end, literary fans cannot fail to be drawn into The Elephant House, a tiny café on the iconic George IV Bridge synonymous for being the birthplace of the boy wizard—or so profess the branded t-shirts on offer to tourists entering and exiting the now-sacred destination. To an ordinary passer-by, The Elephant House looks like nothing more than a cosy yet

nondescript café, and nor would the interior particularly reveal its prominent literary ties. However, stepping into the bathroom is like being transported to another world—Harry Potter fans from all over the world have taken to illustrating this intimate space with their favourite quotes from the books, in what can only be described as a raw and poignant outpouring of love for a book series that has captured the hearts, mind and imaginations of children and adults alike. What some would see as nothing more than an act of vandalism, Edinburgh’s community of bibliophiles see as an act of unadulterated appreciation for the literary genius who spent years honing her craft overlooking the Edinburgh castle, a woman whose legacy still lives on in these musings and scribblings in the bathroom of a small café off the beaten track.

The Harry Potter affiliation is only the tip of the literary iceberg—if the rumours are to be believed, some of literature’s best-known characters were given life in the city of Edinburgh. Alongside Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s most famous fictional character of Sherlock Holmes (supposedly based on Professor Joseph Bell, President of Edinburgh’s Royal College of Surgeons), if folklore is to be believed, Victorian novelist Charles

Dickens also invented iconic character Ebenezer Scrooge entirely by accident in Canongate Kirkyard, a graveyard on Edinburgh’s Royal Mile.

So the story goes, Dickens stumbled upon the gravestone of an “Ebenezer Scroggie” and misread the inscription ‘mealman’ (in deference to the deceased’s lifelong career as a corn trader) as ‘meanman’. And thus the famous literary miser was born, all from a misread inscription on an old grave! In a rather brilliant stroke of irony, there appears that even graveyards in the city of Edinburgh are birthplaces of creativity—but then again, what would you expect from a city so obviously doused in culture, literature, arts and music?

Edinburgh has its fingers firmly on the pulse of all things creative. As the standout city for arts and culture, it’s no surprise that you’d want to move to such a dynamic city, a city so unapologetic in its expressionism and unbridled passion. Edinburgh has all you could ever want and more, so what are you waiting for? Time to pack your bags and head for Scotland’s cultural capital—it’s time to move to Edinburgh.

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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

X1 MEDIA CITY TOWER 4 Salford Quays PRICES FROM :

£124,950 > Circa 5% predicted NET returns 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.

NEW LAUNCH

X1 THE LANDMARK Salford PRICES FROM :

£130,000 > Circa 5.51% predicted NET returns Private communal facilities Beautiful balconies with dynamic city views Prime city centre location Within walking distance of local amenities Experienced management company in place

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The newest addition to the 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.

COMING SOON

X1 THE CAMPUS Salford PRICES FROM :

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

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X1 The Campus will consist of 271 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.

BARREL YARD Manchester PRICES FROM :

ÂŁ130,000 > Circa 5.76% predicted NET returns 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.

LAST APARTMENT S REMAINING

THE TOWER AT X1 THE QUARTER Liverpool PRICES FROM :

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

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

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

DE VELOPMENT

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

by X1 Developments

SILKHOUSE COURT Liverpool PRICES FROM :

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

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

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

PALATINE GARDENS Sheffield PRICES FROM :

ÂŁ69,950 > Circa 6.03% predicted NET returns Quality fixtures and fittings Fully-furnished* Great central location Within walking distance of local shops High rental demand in the area

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

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

NOW SOLD OUT

X1 THE GATEWAY Salford Quays PRICES FROM :

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

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With a sleek, modern design, a luxurious finish and 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

BRIDGEWATER GATE Manchester PRICES FROM :

ÂŁ114,995 > Circa 6% predicted NET returns 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 > 6% NET rental returns 1 and 2-bedroom apartments Lettings and management company in place Private communal facilities State-of-the-art apartments Prime location in the heart of Leeds

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X1 Aire is Knight Knox’s 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 > Circa 6% predicted NET returns Excellent local infrastrucutre 10 minutes walk to central Manchester Experienced managing agent Great transport links and close to shopping Chronic undersupply of housing in Manchester and Salford

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The eagerly anticipated third phase of Knight Knox’s incredibly successful Adelphi Wharf project has 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 > Circa 5.5% NET rental returns Completed and tenanted development Private landscaped gardens Great central location Built by experienced developer High quality fixtures and fittings

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

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

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

COMPLETED AND TENANTED

THE COURTYARD AT X1 THE QUARTER Liverpool PRICES FROM :

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

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

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

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NOW SOLD OUT

MULBERRY PLACE Salford PRICES FROM :

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

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

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

COMPLETED AND TENANTED

THE TERRACE AT X1 THE QUARTER Liverpool PRICES FROM :

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

The Terrace is the fourth phase of the highly successful X1 The Quarter development. 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 > 7% NET rental returns Assured 7% rental income for 1 year Fully-furnished Excellent city centre location Luxury studio apartments High rental demand in Sheffield

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

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

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

LOOKING FOR PROPERTY TO BUY? BE SURE TO VISIT THE

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

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

E FREW

SHO Y ENTR

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

New-build buy-to-let opportunities Studios, 1, 2 & 3-bed apartments available Completed, in construction & tenanted developments available In prime locations across the North West

Enquire today Tel: 0161 772 1394 Web: www.knightknox.com