Asteroid watch? Knight Frank’s space odd-yssey
RICHARD Branson’s efforts to turn us into space tourists present many possibilities for mankind. Lady Gaga plans to become the first performer to do a concert in space, while Wolf of Wall Street star Leo DiCaprio (who has a Virgin Galactic ticket) could deliver his best “Jordan Belfort visits the cosmos” impression.
But what about the potential effect on the earth’s property market?
According to the real estate boffins at Knight Frank, suborbital space travel “presents the opportunity to radically shift global property markets”. It seems an odd subject for the consultancy to tackle, but travelling outside Earth’s atmosphere will make getting around an altogether speedier affair (think London to Sydney in two hours) encouraging the world’s wealthiest to take second homes further afield.
Stepping even further out of its remit, Knight Frank has also published a list of “asteroids to watch” in case any of us fancy a spot of asteroid mining to top up the profit from our property portfolios. Fancy it? Having studied the list, the best investment returns could come from asteroid 200 BM19, which will be approaching Earth in Jan 2016. It’s made of platinum, nickel and iron, it’s worth approx $36 trillion and could yield a profit of $3 trillion.
We’ll race you to it.