It takes a while to get used to the Norwegians. A reputation that, far from shunning as an insult, the locals embrace wholeheartedly. “We are direct. We are to the point. We can be rude,” one Oslo native proudly professed on Estate Gazette’s recent trip to the city coined ‘the Brooklyn of the Nordics’.
It is an attitude that gets the job done. Bureaucracy? No time for that in Norway. Diplomacy? Not much time for that either. Tact might make for pleasant small talk but it sure as hell won’t get deals signed any faster. And it is an approach that has served the country pretty well up until now. It has effectively maintained its huge wealth, in part, by using the freedom of economic independence to operate in its own fast-moving, efficient Norse silo.
There is a major shift occurring across the North Sea. A shift fuelled by a recognition that an international market is a more robust market. And so Norway is ready to re-engage with the rest of the world. It is open for business when it comes to overseas investment and is even prepared to slow down its famously fast approach to deals to give foreign money a chance to land in the country before the ink is dry on domestic contracts.
Capital flow into Norway is one thing. Capital flow out is quite another and so on p28 chief executive of Norges, Karsten Kallevig, reveals what’s next for the property management arm of the biggest sovereign wealth fund in the world.
All this, plus the 10 cities you should be investing in, the great Lisbon love-in and the realities of intergalactic property development. Don’t scoff. It may not be as far off as you think.
Emily Wright, global editor, Estates Gazette
