Podcast

Navigating the 18-Year Real Estate Cycle

1Q22

A leading macroeconomist explains how knowledge of economic cycles can help investors make better decisions at the right times.

Akhil Patel has been studying, writing and teaching about the most important economic cycle that most people don’t know about. He knows that real estate markets operate on an 18.6 year cycle, and he believes understanding that cycle can help people grow and protect their wealth. To kick off 2022, Akhil returns to the podcast for a conversation about our current real estate and stock market cycles, where we are in the cycle and whether we are tracking according to the 18.6 year cycle (we are), and he goes into some predictions for the coming year and practical ways that cycles should inform our investment decisions. This is a more in-depth conversation about Akhil’s and Property Share Economics’ work and follows on from the introductory conversation we had with Akhil at the beginning of 2021 (RWRH episode 21). 

Akhil is a director at Property Share Economics and a leading expert on economic, financial, and property cycles. He has experience in audit, central government and international banking and also serves as a principal policy advisor to the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. Throughout his career, Akhil has worked on a range of projects including reviewing large infrastructure public private partnerships and helping establish the UK’s  £3 billion International Climate Fund.

Key Insights: 

  • How the real estate market operates on an 18.6 year cycle
  • How smartphone technology shaped our current economic cycle
  • The role of human behavior (fear and greed) in investing and cycles
  • How the stock market and real estate market cycles interact
  • The impact of migration to secondary and tertiary markets
  • Advice for investors in our current cycle

Guest Bio:

Akhil became interested in economic cycles during his school years when he came across Henry George’s Progress and Poverty, which explained why economies go through periods of boom and bust. Later on, he witnessed the negative effects of not understanding economic cycles when his family’s business went through difficult periods during the major recessions in the early 1990s and during the global financial crisis after 2008. He became determined to develop a body of work that would help people – whether they were investors, business owners or those just interested in doing something with their savings to grow their wealth or manage their affairs through the course of these economic cycles.

Akhil has professional experience in audit, central government and international banking and has worked on a range of issues from reviewing large infrastructure public private partnerships (PPP) deals to helping establish the UK’s £3 billion International Climate Fund. He has two Masters Degrees (in Finance and Public Policy) and a first degree in the Classics from Oxford. He is also currently a principal policy advisor to the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD).

Resources:

Real Wealth Real Health

Alpha Investing

[email protected] 

Property Share Economics

Akhil’s first episode on Real Wealth Real Health