Zurich, 13 April, 2022

The ambitious residential quarter development 'Eco Village' in Schwäbisch Gmünd had already taken shape in the form of plans and concepts at the end of 2021. At that time, the project developer, thallos AG, submitted the building application for the residential quarter development with around 300 flats to the city of Schwäbisch Gmünd. A forward- looking concept that is intended to harmonise living comfort, an attractive appearance and the highest standards of climate-neutral building. Now, the Real Estate Fund launched by Lakeward Advisory AG in 2021 in cooperation with PMG Investment Solutions AG has founded a joint venture with thallos AG to realise this building project.

Berlin / Zurich, October 29, 2021

Lakeward yesterday laid the foundation stone for the new housing project "Ferdinand's Garden" together with the general contractor PORR and local representatives. The project is located on Ferdinand-Schultze-Strasse in Berlin-Lichtenberg and comprises 395 new apartments.

Ferdinand's Garden is located in Lichtenberg, a district of East Berlin that has experienced steady population growth for years due to continuing inflows from the more expensive, central districts of Berlin. The significant development potential of the area offers Lakeward the opportunity to establish a foothold in the location with a large residential real estate portfolio. The development includes 395 functional and affordable housing units with standard and robust construction standards, as well as 79 rent-controlled units. Occupancy is planned for the end of 2023.

A further victory for brand protection was delivered in the High Court in London on the 22^nd July after Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou’s easyGroup was granted an injunction preventing a French Caribbean travel agent, Stephane Roche from using the “easyway” brand to promote his tourist services to customers in the UK.

The defendant, Stephane Roche will also have to pay legal costs to easyGroup of around £75k plus damages (based on a share of his profits and or his revenues for the last seven years) for using the easy brand without easyGroup’s permission.  The quantum of the damages will be assessed later in the legal process.  However, the court ordered that his website be subject to “geo-blocking” so it is not visible in the UK and he is also prohibited from offering his services to UK travel agents, customers with a .co.uk email address or any other customers that make it clear at any point during the transaction that they are located within the UK. 

easyGroup, the creator and owner of the easy family of brands (www.easy.com ) has today announced another important extension of the brand into household cleaning products.

By joining forces with David Pearce and Darren Mosley of www.easy-cleaning.co.uk, Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou’s well known orange easy logo will be applied on millions and millions of products now sold at supermarkets and convenience shops up and down the UK, typically at significantly lower prices than the high cost brands.

easyProperty, the UK hybrid estate agency combining an online presence with the advantage of local experts providing the necessary local touch, is raising capital on Seedrs, the UK’s leading crowdfunding platform.  Founded in 2012, Seedrs is one of the UK’s leading equity crowdfunding platforms, which has funded 1,235 deals raising a total of £1 billion.

 STAY INFORMED - Wednesday 2nd December 2020 - "Risk-adjusted DeFi yield generation"

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COINDESK - 18 September 2020: "What is DeFi?"

With the explosive growth of yield farming over the past few months DeFi is now proving to be a major milestone in financial history.  However, with the pace of these developments, we know it's difficult to stay current. Alyssa Hertig has published a DeFi primer on Coindesk titled "What is Defi?"

CBRE Econometric Advisors’ latest long-term outlook for U.S. multifamily rental housing indicates the net gain in occupied units—from 15.4 million in Q2 2020 to 17.4 million in Q2 2030—represents an 11.6% demand increase in the 66 metro markets.

The new demand will bolster multifamily’s dynamic investment environment and create new opportunities for buyers of all types. It will create significant opportunities for developers. Steady increases in demand over the decade will generate revenue for large-to-small multifamily property owners across America.

The outlook assumes tepid market demand into early 2021; a year of recovering demand following that, and steady gains thereafter. The favorable long-term outlook should help owners and operators to weather the current storm, knowing that the sector’s COVID-19 challenges will be relatively short term and more promising conditions should be sustained after that.

Read more here: https://www.cbre.com/investor-hub/

US property was already an attractive opportunity fro European investors, from a performance standpoint, and now it's getting better.  From today's Reuters article:

BENGALURU (Reuters) - 6 Aug 2020 - The dollar’s supremacy of well over two years has turned sharply and the current downward trend will continue into next year on expectations the U.S. economic recovery is flagging, especially compared to Europe, buttressing the euro, a Reuters poll showed.

A surge in coronavirus cases across several U.S. states and some data pointing to an economic recovery losing steam pushed the dollar index .DXY down 4.1% in July, its biggest monthly percentage fall in a decade.

That was reflected in the latest positioning data, which showed speculators increased their bets against the dollar to the highest in nine years and at the same time raised their bets in favor of the euro to the highest on record. 

Read more here:  https://www.reuters.com/article/uk-forex-poll-dollar/u-s-dollar-headed-lower-in-retreat-against-the-euro-reuters-poll-idUSKCN25200W