Real Estate Projects of the World

You think you have it all with your concierge, gym, pool and even a tanning bed in your residential building? Well, you don't. At least not compared to the residents across the pond at One Hyde Park London. They have Minority Report status eye scans in their elevators, panic rooms, bomb-proof windows and each resident's mail is x-rayed before it reaches his or her mailbox. Don't be jealous, you can have all that too if you're willing to pay $11,000 a square foot. Oh yeah, plus a $550,000 yearly service charge. You might want to purchase your apartment soon before someone else gets to have Kylie Minogue, Prince of Monaco, Arab Oil Sheikhs and Russian Oligarchs as their neighbors. And don't try to kidnap any of them for ransom either since they have air purifiers that counter against poison gas anyway, I already thought up that one, trust me. One Hyde Park is just one building with just eighty-six residences but there are so many more amazing properties like it throughout the world that I will be exploring with you through this blog.

Each week I will present a unique building that is special in some way with each structure representing a different country to help emphasize that luxury has no limits and no national boundaries. Buildings like One Hyde Park don’t have only a local impact but also have a global economic impact. When projects of this magnitude are constructed, global investors become excited and want to get themselves involved in a similar experiment hoping to gain some sort of return. Luxury developments are able to be constructed faster than ever with modern technology, but can building too fast too soon bring about some disadvantages? Something like what happened to Dubai during the financial crisis of 2008? It is with this subject of certain luxury developments of a diverse range of countries that I will analyze and demonstrate how luxury development projects have affected the local, national and global economies of a variety of nations. Nevertheless, more people are getting rich – emerging economies and rising middle classes in Russia, India, Brazil and China. These BRIC nations all have large populations that lead to a greater demand and more people willing to compete at higher prices.

 It will be interesting to look at cool and exciting buildings outside of New York City as we are witnessing a shift in massive wealth from west to east in our generation. The Empire State Building is only half the size of the current tallest building in the world, Burj Khalifa in Dubai for example. But don't you think another country will soon try to take that spot? I'm guessing it will probably be China, even if it's by next year I wouldn't be surprised. There is a clear parallel between construction developments and rising economies and it is with this blog that I will examine the global economy through this structural perspective lens. I’m really into real estate and crazy projects and my goal is to interest you in it and make you look forward to which building I will present to you through each new blog post.