Brandon Donnelly — Daily insights for city builders. Published since 2013 by Toronto-based real estate developer Brandon Donnelly. — Page 1220

If you’re looking for more evidence that the way we live and work is changing, then check out a new startup called Roam . They describe themselves as an international network of communal spaces. So far, they have locations in Ubud (Bali), Miami, and Madrid. Buenos Aires and London are coming soon.

The way it works is that you start by signing a lease for either a week or a month. You get a private room and bathroom, but everything else, from the co-working spaces to the kitchens, are shared amongst the community. Like other co-working and co-living environments, the community they build is critical.

However, what really differentiates Roam is that you can sign one lease and then live all over the world, freely traveling across their properties. All of the locations are offered up at the same price and you can stay for as long as you’d like.

In my line of work, I don’t have the flexibility of living like a global nomad. But today, there are many people who can. And I also know that there are many people who would prefer to live like this. It’s liberating in so many ways.

My friend and I actually had a similar idea to this back in University and we spent some time working on it. At the time, and this was over a decade ago, we felt that there was a segment of people who increasingly wanted to live like global citizens. I still believe that to be true and, clearly, so do others.

To date, Roam has raised $3.4 million in funding.

Image: Ubud kitchen via Roam

This morning (Friday, July 8th) at 11AM eastern time, the global street artist Phlegm will start work on a giant 8-storey mural at the corner of Yonge + St. Clair in midtown Toronto. It’s going up on the west elevation of 1 St. Clair West.

Here’s what it will look like when it’s complete:

The piece is intended to be experienced at two different scales. From afar, you read it as a human figure embracing itself. (See it?) Once you get closer, you are then drawn into an intricate interpretation of the Toronto landscape – both built and natural.

Embedded within are depictions of the Royal Ontario Museum (including Daniel Libeskind’s Crystal), the SkyDome (yes, the SkyDome), the St. Lawrence Market (my hood), the CN Tower (obligatory), as well as other landmarks in the city. It’s going to be awesome.

The project is a STEPS Initiative and it is being supported by the City of Toronto , Slate Asset Management, CBRE, CIBC, and a few others. They have also setup a great website with a live webcam , so that you can follow along as the artist works.

At the time of writing this post, nothing yet has happened. But by the time it reaches you ( email subscribers ) it should be well underway. The hashtag for all of this is  #PHLEGMPAINTS . 

Big things are starting to happen at Yonge + St. Clair.

This morning, I am looking at the following chart of average home prices in the Greater Toronto Area:

It’s from this Globe and Mail article .

These are staggering numbers. The average price of a detached home in the suburbs (905 area code) increased 21% year-over-year. In the city (416 area code), the increase was 19.6% YOY. These numbers are almost unbelievable.

The article focuses on low supply (decrease in listings) and high demand. And that is certainly a big part of what’s going on here in this city, as well as in many others.

But of course, the backdrop to all of this is our low / zero / negative interest rate environment.

Larry Summers has a great post on his blog (which I discovered this morning via Fred Wilson ) that talks about this “ remarkable financial moment .” In some instances, real interest rates are actually negative! (You should read his post.)

There are always people threatening that interests rates just have to go up. But Larry, as well as others, continue to argue that natural real interest rates are likely to remain close to zero going forward.

Fred mentions Albert Wenger on his blog this morning and I have written about him before as well, here . In his book World After Capital, Albert argues that capital is no longer the scarce resource of our time. Instead, it has become attention.

If you believe all of this to be true, then perhaps the numbers at the top of this post aren’t so unbelievable after all.