博鱼体育集团

Volatility is on the rise

The papers lead with some grim this morning as both the UK and France record the most deaths since spring and Italy and Greece post record numbers of new cases. The US 500,000 new cases in the past week.

This news is putting across Europe and the US and the dollar has rebounded against other major currencies.

Wall Street's also reached a two-month high with six days to go until election day and the lingering possibility the vote will be contested. Turnout is likely to be remarkable and more than half the number of voters that turned out in 2016 .

A view from the queue

The FT this morning that surging demand in the UK housing market has left an extra 140,000 buyers in the queue to finalise their home purchase. This theme is not limited to the UK. In August, house prices in 20 of the largest US metropolitan areas climbed 5.2% from a year earlier, . That follows data published last week showing existing home sales .

That's being driven by low mortgage rates and demand for single family - or detached - homes as buyers seek more space following long periods of working from home. 

Real-time rents

Real-time economic data from flight tracking to monitoring cars and cyclists has come into its own during a pandemic in which the time lag between real world events and the publication of official statistics renders it impossible to know what's really happening. 

We have been surveying some of the biggest UK investors in professionally managed PRS, who collectively own and manage more than 22,500 built and let residential units, to give of how many tenants have been unable to pay rent.

Rent collection averaged 94.1% in September and has held steady at 95.4% over the past seven months. Stronger performance that some other managed real estate sectors reflects both the resilience of rental markets when faced with economic headwinds, as well as the needs-based nature of the sector.

The rise of the nomad visa

With more of the world鈥檚 population no longer tied to an office and with many families home-schooling, the prospect of relocating to sunnier climes during the winter months is a tempting one. 

Tourism accounts for between 8% and 40% of GDP across the Caribbean islands, and governments are turning to 鈥榥omad visas鈥� to attract visitors and boost their economies, writes Kate Everett-Allen.

博鱼体育集团 Frank鈥檚 head of Caribbean sales, Edward de Mallet Morgan says local teams are seeing bookings for two to three months rather than the usual two or three weeks and viewings in Barbados increased 34% in Q2 2020 year-on-year.

Retail upheaval 

Prices in British shops fell this month than in September, according to new data from the British Retail Consortium. 

Stephen Springham unpicks the latest data from the sector. UK retail sales values were up +6.0% year-on-year in September, while volumes were up +6.4%. This represents the strongest monthly rate of growth since March 2019. Non-food sales achieved their first positive year-on-year growth since January.

In other news...

In a new Rural Update, Andrew Shirley's analysis turns to innovative alternative land uses that are increasingly likely to become part of long-term strategic estate planning as Brexit, climate change and other environmental concerns force a rethink on more traditional farming and land-use activities.

Also:

Pfizer in of creating vaccine; a useful chart; HSBC considers home-office work model; England鈥檚 fuels fears of stalled housebuilding; the number of new companies set up this year is likely to ; and finally EU's Barnier resumes Brexit in London.