In Great Britain, swimming ponds — not swimming pools — have become status symbols. They are natural pools, or garden water features that create a “wild swimming experience.”
And wealthy buyers are snapping them up quickly.
According to a story at bloomberg.com, the swimming ponds are natural enough for frogs and schools of fish, and safe enough from pollution and health hazards without being filled with chemicals.
They blend into the open spaces, often in country estates, where homeowners are addressing preservation and environmental concerns fuelled by pollution in the nation’s waterways.
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While both candidates hoping to be the U.S. President on election day (November 5), The Financial Post reports that “good housing policies” are not made by campaign speeches. Also that the political housing strategies are quite similar in Canada.
The post cites “cash benefits and tax credits for first-time homebuyers, tax incentives for builders to construct affordable housing, and the provision of federal surplus land for residential development” are being floated as part of the solution on both sides of the border.
Rent controls are also being used by both U.S. politicians, but Murtaza Haider and Stephen Moranis of The Post write that this “shifts the burden from governments to private enterprises” and “history shows that such policies offer limited benefits and tend to create more problems over the long term.”
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Industrial real estate is booming in Mexico. According to the Mexico News Daily, there has been “an increase over 30 per cent in the commercialization of industrial spaces” throughout the country. This is especially true in the northern Mexico cities of Monterrey, Ciudad Juarez and Saltillo.
In Monterrey, during the first six months of 2024, the industrial inventory grew by 14.1 per cent. In Ciudad Juarez, the second-largest midyear year-on-year growth ever recorded was principally because of “custom-built projects and speculative pre-leasing.” And in Saltillo, the demand for industrial space was outpacing construction with a 27 per cent increase in industrial warehouse leasing.
Incidentally, industrial properties have long been a specialty for Dale Clark, whose stories and accomplishments include downtown buildings in both Vancouver and Saskatoon and who has represented both buyers and sellers (separate transactions, of course) in recent years in the Lower Mainland.