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Property Talk

Property Talk

Author: Andreas Wessenaar
Date: 2019-11-15

Letter from America

I am writing this week from the most unusual and amazing place, the Sterling Memorial Library, which is the main library building at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, USA.

It is fortunately open to the public and provides exquisite spaces or reading rooms to quietly sit and work. This library holds 4 million volumes and is a good example of Gothic Revival architecture that looks similar to the Oxford and Cambridge University buildings people are more familiar with.

Its design is like an ancient chapel with arches and hundreds of panes of stained glass. What I was not expecting is how cold the US north-east coast is at this time of year.

Freezing for a South African from Ballito and I had to rush out and buy a Yale branded beanie and scarf from their impressive bookstore and gift shop. When your heads of departments are Nobel Prize winners and best selling authors, such as Professor Robert J Shiller of the Yale Economics department, then you get a sense of why these Ivy League Universities are so impressive and lead the way in academic research and debate.

The reason for my visit to New Haven and Yale University is to accompany my son to attend the World Scholars Championship in debating. Having qualified in South Africa for this final champion of champions round it meant a trip to the US to be part of the almost 2,000 other senior-level scholars from over 60 countries represented at this event.

The field is dominated by Asian students giving one a sense of which countries place great emphasis on education and academic excellence. I was surprised at how well-represented smaller South-East Asian countries such as Vietnam are represented.

If this attendance is a leading indicator of future economic growth then we better watch out for these countries that are so determined to stake their claim in a quickly changing and evolving world. The medium of instruction is English and these kids are equally adept in their home language as in English.

South Africans should look and learn from their South-East Asian friends. I managed to find accommodation through Booking.com in the historic district of New Haven near Little Italy and the world-famous Frank Pepe Pizzeria that has been in the same building for almost 100 years.

We did manage to go there for a Pizza and even though I ordered the medium size it is still about three times the size of our large Pizza's we have in SA.

If you are earning US Dollars the cost of living is reasonably similar and I found purchasing power parity at an exchange rate of 10:1. At the current 15:1 things get expensive and I think our Rand is undervalued.

The US housing market is reported as being in decline having run hard over the past few years. A pricing correction is anticipated and is starting to show signs of happening.

The US Commerce Department reported that for September 2019 the price of new homes was down by 8,8% year-on-year with a median value of US$299,400.

The opportunities for renovating here are simply endless and even within walking distance of the Yale University Campus, I earmarked several areas ripe for redeveloping.

If this was my hometown I would be investing within walking distance of the Yale campus. It is like Stellenbosch on steroids.