A brilliant historic narrative of urban development. As a former real estate lawyer I saw our work on every street and with every building.
You have conected politics, economic, legal, financial regimes into an historic record of development.
I believe that this subject has been poorly examined notwithstanding it's importance.
I have observed 2 real estate booms and one bust. Seen tradesmen builders grow from 1- 5 homes to a thousand. To bankruptcy.
Seen families torn apart over real estate inheritances. Some with shares that could be liquidated and some with partnerships that requires years of litigation.
Over the last 25 years international buyers have acquired thousands of condominium apartments in Toronto and Vancouver and many other cities. Much of it individual/family investors from China. A boon to Toronto developers. That had a banking system receptive to lending for such projects. With buyers in hand, a condominium building is easier to finance. Results may vary though. Investors were frequently sold poorly designed units that a long term landlord wouldn't want to market.
great tour through a fascinating system, look forward to reading further essays. i wonder how these contingencies and mechanics will have played a major part in european history (as they surely will have!)
Will have to read this more carefully - and it does seem interesting. It doesn’t seem true that cities looked alike in 1700 though. Amsterdam had created a distinctive sort of urban form with its canal projects and approach to selling uniform plots along them, Edinburgh had a very different distinctly vertical form, etc
Fascinating study
What a privilege to read. You have made me think about cities in a completely new way - looking forward to the next part!
Thank you. It has been a fascinating rabbit research hole digging this up.
Thanks for this stunning, thought-provoking read!
A brilliant historic narrative of urban development. As a former real estate lawyer I saw our work on every street and with every building.
You have conected politics, economic, legal, financial regimes into an historic record of development.
I believe that this subject has been poorly examined notwithstanding it's importance.
I have observed 2 real estate booms and one bust. Seen tradesmen builders grow from 1- 5 homes to a thousand. To bankruptcy.
Seen families torn apart over real estate inheritances. Some with shares that could be liquidated and some with partnerships that requires years of litigation.
Over the last 25 years international buyers have acquired thousands of condominium apartments in Toronto and Vancouver and many other cities. Much of it individual/family investors from China. A boon to Toronto developers. That had a banking system receptive to lending for such projects. With buyers in hand, a condominium building is easier to finance. Results may vary though. Investors were frequently sold poorly designed units that a long term landlord wouldn't want to market.
I look forward to your next piece.
great tour through a fascinating system, look forward to reading further essays. i wonder how these contingencies and mechanics will have played a major part in european history (as they surely will have!)
Fantastic study. Any idea why Warsaw is such an outlier, even compared to Vienna/Budapest/Berlin?
Will have to read this more carefully - and it does seem interesting. It doesn’t seem true that cities looked alike in 1700 though. Amsterdam had created a distinctive sort of urban form with its canal projects and approach to selling uniform plots along them, Edinburgh had a very different distinctly vertical form, etc