The debate on active vs passive investing has been raging for years but with no clear winner. Highly skilled active equity managers can certainly beat the market by a wide margin, more than justifying their higher fees. Just look at the long term track records of managers such as Lindsell Train, for example. But talented active equity managers are a rare breed and their performance is often volatile whereas passive funds, by definition, deliver more predictable market-like returns and come with a much lower price tag. In recent years, passive funds have been in the ascendancy. With the rising ..read more

Sophisticated institutional investors, such as Sovereign Wealth Funds and pension funds, are increasing their allocations to real estate but it is a slow and painful process. Unlike equities, bonds, currencies and commodities, no efficient capital market for real estate exists, which means that most real estate deals are expensive private transactions with long lead times and mountains of paperwork that remain hidden from public view. As a result, unless they are members of exclusive real estate investment clubs or consortiums, the majority of investors simply can’t access this deal flow. A r ..read more

Global Alternatives, Property Crowd’s parent company, is proud to be one of the top 100+ firms selected to exhibit at the Government’s International FinTech conference in London on 22 March. The conference, organised by HM Treasury, is designed to showcase to investors the best that entrepreneurs in the sector have to offer. Property Crowd is one of our platforms aiming to modernise the world of real estate investing. We’re building a capital markets ecosystem connecting real estate owners and asset managers with potential investors, including a fully-regulated, cross-border infrastructure for ..read more

Why are UK house prices so high, especially in London and the South East? The possible explanations are well rehearsed. For some, it’s all Mrs Thatcher’s fault. When she decided home-ownership was the only way to go in the 1980s, local authorities stopped building council houses, triggering a boom in private property prices. More recently, it’s been argued that Nimbyism and tight planning restrictions are to blame. Indeed, this was the explanation cited by the Chancellor in his 2017 Budget. Phil Hammond promised changes to the planning system to encourage better use of land in cities and town ..read more

Ever since interest rates were slashed to avoid a depression in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis, savers have suffered from wafer thin returns on cash ISAs. Last year was the worst on record, with average returns at an historic low of 0.93 per cent, according to Moneyfacts. Now that interest rates are heading upwards, cash ISA rates will surely improve, won’t they? Unfortunately, that doesn’t seem likely. For a start, with growth remaining sluggish, a big rise in base rates from the current level of 0.5% is not on the cards. There are also technical obstacles in the savings market to hig ..read more

Phew! We can all relax. Fears of a stock market crash have receded. All through last year fund managers warned nervously of stretched valuations as equity markets scaled new heights. Now, surprisingly, despite markets climbing higher still since the start of the year, consensus expectations have actually become more optimistic. The closely-watched monthly Bank of America Merrill Lynch Fund Manager Survey shows that professional investors don’t now expect a significant decline in equity markets until 2019 or beyond. As a result, the number taking out protection against a near-term correction h ..read more

The exact origins of the phrase are unclear, but John Camden Hotten’s Slang Dictionary records it being used in the aftermath of the railway investment mania in the 1840s. At that time, it was meant to reassure investors then turning their attention back towards slower and steadier returns from property after the mauling they had suffered in the speculative frenzy surrounding the birth of mass railway transportation in Victorian England. As with the dot.com bust in 2001 and now the cryptocurrency feeding frenzy, when the dust settled, the underlying new technology proved to be sound in the lo ..read more

The negative newsflow around the UK real estate market is mounting. The last few weeks it was all about falling consumer confidence and supply constraints in residential property, highlighted in media coverage of the Budget. Now, it’s the slowdown in commercial office space grabbing the headlines. The number of new office developments getting under way in London has dropped by 9 per cent in the past six months, according to a new report from consultants Deloitte. The firm’s London Office Crane Study also indicates the amount of new office space under construction is at its lowest since 2014 ..read more

With equities and bonds both at record highs, it’s a real challenge for retail investors to find value in today’s markets. Institutional investors face the same dilemma and are increasingly favouring alternatives, including real estate. But retail investors haven’t historically had the same opportunities to gain exposure to the asset class. Until recently, UK investors were filling their boots with buy-to-let properties, but that market is now looking less lucrative. Savills is forecasting that it will dive by 27% by 2022. The estate agent says it is already seeing the first signs of landlord ..read more

The UK real-estate market, commercial and residential, is already slowing, particularly in London, and it may decelerate further over the next year or so as the ripples spread outwards from the capital until the Brexit cloud lifts. But it’s hard to envisage a crash when interest rates and unemployment are so low and credit remains accessible. Irrespective of the cyclical slowdown, the structural underpinnings of the UK property market – scare land supply and dense population growth (latest figures show the sharpest increase for 70 years) – point to continued steady growth in volume and prices ..read more