Village people swimming in cash

Global corporations as well as local players have so far only contracted a case of the jitters; but once again we’ve been forced to appreciate the full meaning of the phrase ‘living in a global village’. Action in our part of the world only seems to have been taken now that the virus has appeared in Italy, even though there had been much talk about the threat it posed for weeks beforehand, including the impact it could have on the retail sector (many chains are supplied from Asia) and the tourist sector. However, in our business we generally only see the positives of globalisation, such as the free movement of capital – which has undeniably been flowing in torrents into our part of Europe, as we write about this month in the article ‘Skinny-Dipping at High Tide?’. The glut of cash has been flooding into offices (‘Towering Ambitions’), residences (‘Over Here and Over There’) as well as warehouses, which has recently turned out to be the dark horse of the investment market, as it surges ahead of the field. However, a representative of Segro – one of the oldest European firms in that sector – insists that it was always worth putting a bet on. The roots of Slough Estates (as it used to be called) go way back, as far as 1920. A hundred years on, Magdalena Szulc, the company head for Central Europe, gives us an insight into the philosophy of the organisation as well as its plans, as it also celebrates the 15th anniversary of the opening of its office in Poland (‘The Fab Five’). And then there’s the cherry on this month’s cake: ‘2020 Visions’ – our special supplement dedicated to the office market, this time with a focus on where technological advances are now taking it. So this should be your perfect beach reading material under the palm trees in Cannes this March (if any of us can actually get to MIPIM, that is).