Income
Some assets are held for rent. That role depends on occupancy, tenure, management and local law.
Global Investment
The job of the asset, then the city.
A holding needs a purpose it can actually carry. It cannot carry every purpose at once.
Capital preservation
Long-duration property can play a capital-preservation role when location, condition and liquidity support it.
Diversification
A second country, currency or city changes the exposure only when the drivers differ.
Lifestyle
A home, a base, or a place to work from. Use has a value of its own. The brief names which one.
Legacy
Property is often held across generations. Who inherits, and on what title, is part of the holding.
The time a holding can be funded
A long hold that needs a sale in year three is not a long hold. Cycles are ordinary. What matters is capacity: cash, a building that can be maintained, and a use that still makes sense if the next few years are dull.
Currency as part of the holding
Another country is another currency. Rent, costs and the eventual sale can sit in different units. That exposure is part of the holding, not a note added after the viewing.
How a holding is left
The exit is part of the entry. Marketing photographs do not create a bid. Thin resale is a fact of some markets.
The cost of holding across borders
Another tax file, another lawyer, another set of accounts. If nobody is named to run the asset, the brief is unfinished.
Borrowing
Debt can make a good asset work harder and a weak one fail faster. Local rules for non-resident lending, currency mismatch, and the cost of a dull year belong in the same file. There is no universal safe ratio.
What to underwrite
Occupier, title, condition, costs, tax, exit. If any of those is a guess, label it as a guess. Guesses can still be taken. They should not be dressed as facts.
One building is not a portfolio
An overseas property is a concentrated position. That can still be a coherent holding. The concentration is part of what is held.
Research
Notes on the forces, not on a security.
Each note names its sources, its date, and the markets it sits beside. None of them recommends a purchase or states a return.
Long-term investing
Global diversification
Real assets
Capital preservation
Emerging markets
Developed markets
Currency exposure
Interest rates
Inflation
Infrastructure investment
Demographic trends
Geographic diversification
Investment risk
Cross-border capital flows
GRIP Library
Investment basics
Investment basics
Five jobs a property can do
Income, preservation, diversification, lifestyle, legacy. Name the job. Then see whether the building can actually do it.
Brief26 August 20262 min read
Investment basics
Cycles are normal. Time horizon is a choice.
A long hold is a design: cash, condition, and a reason to still want the asset later.
Brief29 June 20262 min read
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