I have written about Koto a few times before (check here and here). They design and fabricate beautiful modular homes and cabins that are designed to connect you back to nature.
One location where you can already find these cabins is on Fritton Lake, which is about 2 hours and 45 minutes outside of London. The way it works is that you buy a plot of land in the Fritton Lake community and then you choose which Koto home you would like.
There are two models available -- Ki and Miru -- and they can be customized as either 2 or 3-bedroom cabins. Apparently it then takes somewhere between 4 and 6 months for your new cabin to be fabricated and delivered to site.
Prefabrication is, of course, not a new idea. But it does feel like we are finally starting to see some meaningful traction. As recent as 2016, only about 2% of new single-family homes constructed in the US were prefab or modular.
But today it's perhaps easy to imagine a world where only the top end of the market builds on-site and custom. Koto is also evidence that these homes can be just as, if not more, beautiful and sustainable.
FYI: The Koto team is having an "open day" on Saturday, October 1, 2022 at Fritton Lake. If you happen to be in the area and would like to check out the cabins (and do things like swim in the lake), drop them a note to book a spot.
Image: Koto
Here's what I can tell you this morning: Real estate development is a bit more fun when you don't have to constantly worry about supply-chain issues, access to labor, high inflation, and regularly increasing interest rates. That said, if you just want to buy a super-prime property in one of the world's preeminent global cities, things seem to be just fine:
I have written about Koto a few times before (check here and here). They design and fabricate beautiful modular homes and cabins that are designed to connect you back to nature.
One location where you can already find these cabins is on Fritton Lake, which is about 2 hours and 45 minutes outside of London. The way it works is that you buy a plot of land in the Fritton Lake community and then you choose which Koto home you would like.
There are two models available -- Ki and Miru -- and they can be customized as either 2 or 3-bedroom cabins. Apparently it then takes somewhere between 4 and 6 months for your new cabin to be fabricated and delivered to site.
Prefabrication is, of course, not a new idea. But it does feel like we are finally starting to see some meaningful traction. As recent as 2016, only about 2% of new single-family homes constructed in the US were prefab or modular.
But today it's perhaps easy to imagine a world where only the top end of the market builds on-site and custom. Koto is also evidence that these homes can be just as, if not more, beautiful and sustainable.
FYI: The Koto team is having an "open day" on Saturday, October 1, 2022 at Fritton Lake. If you happen to be in the area and would like to check out the cabins (and do things like swim in the lake), drop them a note to book a spot.
Image: Koto
Here's what I can tell you this morning: Real estate development is a bit more fun when you don't have to constantly worry about supply-chain issues, access to labor, high inflation, and regularly increasing interest rates. That said, if you just want to buy a super-prime property in one of the world's preeminent global cities, things seem to be just fine:
According to FT, both New York and London have continued to see a rise in super-prime sales this year and both have seen more of these sales in the first 8 months of 2022 compared to all of 2019 (before the pandemic). Note: These charts are showing home sales greater than US$10 million and greater than £5 million, respectively.
On top of this, many or most of these buyers are, apparently, still able to access financing at LTVs of 100% (i.e. no money down). For what it's worth, there is a London mortgage broker quoted in the article saying that he has arranged more 100% mortgages this year than in his entire 20-year career. Turns out that the best way to ensure access to debt is to not need it in the first place.
Charts: FT
Back in 2014, Amsterdam became the first city to have what is called a "night mayor." The role of a night mayor is what the name suggests. They are intended to be the chief executive officer of a city's nighttime economy. And so it was and it continues to be recognition that the night can be an important economic development tool.
This seemed to work out well for Amsterdam, which is why many other cities quickly followed suit with their own night mayor elections. During this time, a number of us here in Toronto also started advocating for our own nighttime CEO. (FYI, here is a link to the current night mayor of Amsterdam.)
But fast forward to today and the tone seems to have changed in Amsterdam. The city's daytime mayor, Femke Halsema, is now actively concerned about over-tourism and, in particular, the way that some tourists behave when they check-in to Amsterdam.
Here's an excerpt from a recent interview that she did with Bloomberg:
We have to tackle two problems. The first problem is what I’d call the London problem: Our city is becoming too expensive. That is also part of being an international city and having many expats living here. But it has consequences for the middle classes. It’s very difficult to find a house in Amsterdam except for the highest incomes, so our middle class — teachers, police officers, people working in health care — are leaving the city. We’re very alert about it. For a city to survive in the long run you need social stability and people from middle or lower classes to also feel at home.
Our second problem is the Venice problem: The people who live here become estranged especially in the city center, because it’s no longer part of their city. We have to find a new balance, in being a home for people from Amsterdam and at the same time welcoming international visitors and tourists.
More specifically, the Venice problem seems to be a problem of behavior:
It’s not a form of tourism we welcome or don’t welcome — it’s a form of behavior. What we do not welcome is people who come here on a vacation from morals. They express a form of behavior they would not express at home. People coming here to lose their morals is a problem for us.
It is for this reason that the city is hoping to relocate its red light district to outside of the city center. The intention is not to get rid of it, or for the city to turn its back on its long history of tolerance, but it does want to move it somewhere else in the hopes that Amsterdam will become more associated with culture than hedonism.
But does moving it actually change any behaviors? If one were to develop a purpose-built "erotic center" from the ground up, is it even possible to make it more integrated with the broader city (minimize the Venice problem) and, to use the mayor's words, make it more chic than what currently exists?
These are all exceedingly tough city building questions that can't really be untangled from questions of morality.
For the full Bloomberg interview with mayor Halsema, click here.
According to FT, both New York and London have continued to see a rise in super-prime sales this year and both have seen more of these sales in the first 8 months of 2022 compared to all of 2019 (before the pandemic). Note: These charts are showing home sales greater than US$10 million and greater than £5 million, respectively.
On top of this, many or most of these buyers are, apparently, still able to access financing at LTVs of 100% (i.e. no money down). For what it's worth, there is a London mortgage broker quoted in the article saying that he has arranged more 100% mortgages this year than in his entire 20-year career. Turns out that the best way to ensure access to debt is to not need it in the first place.
Charts: FT
Back in 2014, Amsterdam became the first city to have what is called a "night mayor." The role of a night mayor is what the name suggests. They are intended to be the chief executive officer of a city's nighttime economy. And so it was and it continues to be recognition that the night can be an important economic development tool.
This seemed to work out well for Amsterdam, which is why many other cities quickly followed suit with their own night mayor elections. During this time, a number of us here in Toronto also started advocating for our own nighttime CEO. (FYI, here is a link to the current night mayor of Amsterdam.)
But fast forward to today and the tone seems to have changed in Amsterdam. The city's daytime mayor, Femke Halsema, is now actively concerned about over-tourism and, in particular, the way that some tourists behave when they check-in to Amsterdam.
Here's an excerpt from a recent interview that she did with Bloomberg:
We have to tackle two problems. The first problem is what I’d call the London problem: Our city is becoming too expensive. That is also part of being an international city and having many expats living here. But it has consequences for the middle classes. It’s very difficult to find a house in Amsterdam except for the highest incomes, so our middle class — teachers, police officers, people working in health care — are leaving the city. We’re very alert about it. For a city to survive in the long run you need social stability and people from middle or lower classes to also feel at home.
Our second problem is the Venice problem: The people who live here become estranged especially in the city center, because it’s no longer part of their city. We have to find a new balance, in being a home for people from Amsterdam and at the same time welcoming international visitors and tourists.
More specifically, the Venice problem seems to be a problem of behavior:
It’s not a form of tourism we welcome or don’t welcome — it’s a form of behavior. What we do not welcome is people who come here on a vacation from morals. They express a form of behavior they would not express at home. People coming here to lose their morals is a problem for us.
It is for this reason that the city is hoping to relocate its red light district to outside of the city center. The intention is not to get rid of it, or for the city to turn its back on its long history of tolerance, but it does want to move it somewhere else in the hopes that Amsterdam will become more associated with culture than hedonism.
But does moving it actually change any behaviors? If one were to develop a purpose-built "erotic center" from the ground up, is it even possible to make it more integrated with the broader city (minimize the Venice problem) and, to use the mayor's words, make it more chic than what currently exists?
These are all exceedingly tough city building questions that can't really be untangled from questions of morality.
For the full Bloomberg interview with mayor Halsema, click here.
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