Unreal estate !

The survey published in this week's economist is pretty interesting. According to it, Mumbai is among the least buy to let yield rates city. It means that if someone is buying a property only to lease it.. then its a money loosing proposition given the high inflation and interest rates scenario.

But what about the returns when a sells the property?

The real return of any real estate world over is from the capital gains. Even in this list if we analyze the topper Cairo, the rank has no meaning... Just a look at the prevalent interest rate there which is at 12.12% for 3 month loan (Reference: economist - published 28th Aug 2008) suggest that the return would be therefore negative ! True it will be more negative for Mumbai, but the comparison is still not accurate.

An accurate comparison should not just compare buy to let yeilds but should also adjust it for prevalent home loan rate and also the price appreciation. Mumbai which is doing badly on yeild & interest rate (thanks to Indian inflation) will quickly climb rankings on the capital gains! This will hold inspite of recent softening of property rates.

Olympic & Entrepreneurship

How is Olympic medal tally related to the world order ?

Historic trend for UK, US & Former USSR in terms of number of medal won per capita GDP suggest interesting conclusions. Though there is a visible decline for all three, Former USSR shows sharpest. Countries like Jamaica establish the fact that there is no close relation between Olympic medal and the financial power of the country, but we need to look deeper into the events where countries win. Russia traditionally has had stronghold in gymnastics while countries like Jamaica win in atheletics, while US has traditionally been winning in all kinds of events... individual or team. The declining medal to per capita GDP ratio is perhaps another indicator of 'flat world' and changing world order. The relatively stable trend for UK seem to indicate relativly stable social fabric for UK. It has undergone changes, but not as revolutionary as US or Russia & old friends.

The earstwhile USSR was known for its socialist way of things and children were identified quite early and trained to win at olympics. The events they won it required such "disciplined" training. While Jamaican atheletes might not had such training facilities, but its rather the power in the genes.

In US, UK while it seems more of the individualism... people excel at event of their interest.. hence a wide range of success stories.

Even Indian medals at 2008 suggest individualism victory. All the medal winners are ones who had put on line their own money to achieve the feet. This entrepreneual turnaround will definitly lead India to more medals in future olympics as their is now a establish record of instant success and celebrity status on winning. A status which till now was enjoyed by only cricketers and filmstars. Now there is another avenue. Indian entrepreneurs will surely grab this opportunity in near future and Indian victory will not be limited to few events.. but in diverse events.