Why real estate investors should follow global population trends
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April 10, 2015
by: Kate Allen
The best real estate investment in the world today? Beachfront huts in Somalia. That is according to Hans Rosling, a Swedish public health professor and data visualisation pioneer. A statistical geek is an unlikely source of property investment advice but Rosling’s rationale is convincing — and it is one that professional property developers such as Barratt and Klépierre are already putting into practice.
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The explanation lies in demographics. All of the world’s forecast 3bn population growth through to 2100 will be urban, Rosling points out; a third will be in Asia, while two-thirds will be in Africa. In economic terms the developed west will grow at 1 to 2 per cent a year through until 2100, while the rest of the world will grow at 4 to 6 per cent. This amounts to a startling global shift in the pattern of trade.
“The Indian Ocean will be the Atlantic of the next generations,” predicts Rosling. As a result, the surf-beaten golden sands that stretch north from Mogadishu will make excellent holidaying territory for the Asian middle classes, several decades hence.
