Five jobs a property can do

Property is asked to do too many jobs at once. A holiday home is not a pension. A trophy penthouse still has to name its currency, its law and its buyer. A family house in another country earns rent only after the tenancy law has been read.

GRIP uses five roles as a sorting tool. A building may serve more than one. It should serve at least one honestly.

• Income: rent from a real occupier, after voids, fees, tax and upkeep.
• Capital preservation: a long-duration real asset, still exposed to rates, condition and politics.
• Diversification: another city, currency or legal system. Complexity is the cost of that spread.
• Lifestyle: a place a household will actually use. The weeks can be counted. If the weeks are few, that is the fact.
• Legacy: title that can be held and passed on. Succession is a design problem: who can hold the title, and who receives it.

A holding without a named job is still only a collection.

None of these roles is a promise of profit. They are a way to stop one apartment being asked to do five jobs at once.