TAG: Real Estate
From 206 BCE to 220 CE, China’s Han dynasty fostered a booming trade industry for silk, a precious commodity in high demand among the elites of the Mediterranean. The Silk Road was the name given to the network of trade routes connecting the East and West at the time. Later, spices and other precious cargo would be traded using the system, fostering not only economic, but also cultural links between Asia and its contiguous continents.
Urbanisation is a mega-trend redefining contemporary life in both developed and emerging markets across the globe. This mass rural-to-urban movement of people and expansion of cities to absorb formerly isolated villages is a relatively recent phenomenon, at least in the developing world.
Around 55% of the world’s population – or 4.2bn people – lived in urban areas in 2018, up from 47% in 2000, according to the UN. Because of the rapid rate of urbanisation, this figure is expected to reach 68% by 2050, with growth concentrated in Latin America, the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), sub-Saharan Africa and Asia.