My first trip of the year has taken me to Stockholm, where I’m spending the week looking into the high-end apartment market. I’m staying in Östermalm, one of the city’s best and most expensive districts. 

The residential market in Stockholm is strong. After the correction that followed the 2022 peak, prices have been recovering steadily, and local agents now describe Stockholm as one of Europe’s “recovery leaders.” This is largely attributed to the Riksbank’s aggressive rate‑cutting.

A 3-hour flight traveling due north from Houston we start our journey on a warm, plus 17 degrees Celsius day. Crossing over the plains of the USA, then halfway in we start to see the border of winter, as we quickly cross into a real snowscape. We touch down to a mix of snow mounds and exposed brown grass, and the captain enthusiastically welcomes us to a minus 10 degrees Celsius environment. 

Whilst celebrating my birthday at the end of August is a quiet affair - a single candle and a small cake as I am now of an age where too many candles could start a fire, I am heading out to a country whose own Independence Day is August 31 - well attended and vibrant in its celebration.

Sadly, a night flight both in and out means I don’t get to see the island in its natural state, but lights are on, and I am assured the celebrations are set to go well into the wee hours of Monday. I am in Port of Spain, Trinidad &Tobago looking at the office market.

As assignment in Victoria, Seychelles this week valuing an office and residential portfolio. The capital Victoria is very small and relies on the tourist and financial services industries.

Recent changes in legislation have expanded the ability for foreigners to purchase property. This tends to target high-end properties, and we have yet to see how much impact this has

I am very happy to be back in Zimbabwe combining both work and holiday!

The real estate market in Harare appears to be doing relatively well. The USD and ZAR are legalised tender. This has encouraged foreign investors and the diaspora to invest – with the property market a beneficiary.

This week I am in Monrovia, the capital of Liberia. I have an office/land project, and am staying in Mamba Point but looking across the city to include the areas of Capitol Hill, Sinkor and Congo Town.

I am finding very little availability of quality offices. It is for this reason that build-to-leasing is a feature of this market, having been undertaken recently for Orange, IB Bank and Embassy of Ireland.

I am in Malabo on Bioko Island in Equatorial Guinea. This is an unusual country, being one of Africa’s few upper-middle-income countries due to its large oil and gas deposits, I am here looking for office space for an international corporate.

There is a very limited supply of offices to lease, and few speculatively built office buildings. Currently there appears to be an imbalance and very low vacancy. Whilst there is no official data, vacancy is probably at less than 5%.

This week I am in Cotonou, Benin. I was last here almost 20 years ago and the place is quite different.

As Benin’s commercial capital, Cotonou has seen growing demand for office space, especially in areas like Haie Vive, Ganhi, and the city centre, where embassies, banks, NGOs, multinational companies, and government agencies concentrate.

I am in Malabo on Bioko Island in Equatorial Guinea. This is an unusual country, being one of Africa’s few upper-middle-income countries due to its large oil and gas deposits, I am here looking for office space for an international corporate.

There is a very limited supply of offices to lease, and few speculatively built office buildings. Currently there appears to be an imbalance and very low vacancy. Whilst there is no official data, vacancy is probably at less than 5%.

This month I have been in Brazil, researching the real estate market in Brasília, Brazil's capital city. The vision for Brasília was crafted in the past when there was little understanding of the detrimental effect that gas guzzling vehicles would have on the environment. This goes some way to explain why there is a bias towards vehicle travel rather than pedestrians, which in 2024 is unusual for capital cities where more emphasis is being placed on cycling and walking.

This month I have been in Brazil, researching the real estate market in Brasília, Brazil's capital city. The vision for Brasília was crafted in the past when there was little understanding of the detrimental effect that gas guzzling vehicles would have on the environment. This goes some way to explain why there is a bias towards vehicle travel rather than pedestrians, which in 2024 is unusual for capital cities where more emphasis is being placed on cycling and walking.

I am in Majuro the capital of the Marshall Islands this week reviewing the residential property market.

There are significant geographic and economic constraints. Land availability is slim, and construction costs are steep, leaving most investors to focus on other sectors such as shipping, fishing and leisure. Nearly all new residential development is directed at accommodating government employees, who receive housing subsidies that are capped at around $750 per month.

I recently travelled to Lahore in Pakistan.  Lahore is a city I am becoming very familiar with, having visited a few times in the past eighteen months. It is a fascinating city, packed with culture and splendid architectural gems in the Old City. The ancient fort, with its winding alleys and mosques, is exquisite to see. Pakistani food is on another level and varies widely from region to region, and I spared no time to savor it. However, what sets Pakistan apart is its people who are some of the most hospitable I have had the good fortune to meet.

Rabat is always a pleasure to visit and this time was no exception. For me, of all the cities in Morocco, Rabat is my favourite. The ancient architecture co-exists effortlessly with the modern and it has the feel of a place with a bright future. Without exception, all the business people I met with were ambitious, worldly and, for the most part, at least tri-lingual. In fact, in the 10 years during which I have been coming to Morocco, I have noticed a dramatic improvement in the level of English, particularly amongst younger people.

I was looking forward to my first trip to the Gulf and Kuwait did not disappoint. Until the discovery of oil in the 1930’s, Kuwait was best known for the harvesting and trade of pearls. Indeed, the pearl remains a national symbol and is featured in   much of the country’s art and architecture. The most memorable example of this being the extraordinarily opulent Assima Pearls chandelier, located in the Al Assima Mall. As I stood gazing up at the sparkling behemoth, I was told two facts about it. First, that it is the largest chandelier in the world, and second, that it weighs 16 tonnes. The transition from intrigue to terror was abrupt.

Never in my wildest dreams did I expect to be asked to go to the Caribbean for work! The assignment was on behalf of a government client tasked with acquiring new ambassadorial residences in Barbados and Trinidad. My role was to appraise the residential real estate markets on both islands and provide a clear idea of value to assist the client’s negotiation team. In addition to negotiators, the client flew in a delegation of personnel to appraise the selected properties including an architect, interior designer, building surveyor, and security professionals.

If you need to travel then direct flights are the ideal, but there is a finite distance that we can travel on a single flight and so many of us are reliant on super transit hubs for connecting flights. The excitement of travelling to a country gets you through any flight but with a short transfer window the panic can quickly set in as you are required to gallop to the furthest gates (why is that?) and maybe a security check for good measure; too long a transfer period and the ‘’haul effect’’ as I call it takes hold as the journey seems to never end. I am not sure if there is any study that exists that defines the perfect Airport transfer time, but in my experience its between 2 and 4 hours.

Abidjan continues to impress me, the level of infrastructure and improvements to the city over the last 10 years is really encouraging. We are here on several projects – a lease renewal, advising on a new headquarter development and an African portfolio optimisation, valuing a logistics park and finishing off the acquisition of a new embassy.

This month I travelled to the historic city of Bern, the place where Albert Einstein famously began to develop his Theory of Relativity. The story goes that Albert Einstein was riding on a tram in Bern, Switzerland, during his time working as a patent clerk in the city. As he looked out of the window, he saw the Zytglogge, a prominent clock tower in Bern's old town.