In the story of Dune, there is a spice called Melange that is the most valuable substance in the universe. Several things throughout history can serve as inspiration for such a substance, something that for whatever reason, people in a certain period of time treasured above all else. Some of these were useful commodities, like oil, some were luxuries, like tea and sugar. Others were just plain stupid because they were entirely speculative, such as tulips In these unprecedented times and in preparation for the painful recession to come, it is important for us to ponder what our version of the tulip fever has been, and what substance or thing will become the spice for the coming decade. We have always known that there was a real estate bubble; property could only go up, after all land feels very much like oil, in that it is always useful, and will always go up in value. This analysis is wrong, of course, on both counts. Property’s price, like oil, is driven almost entirely by supply and demand, and it is not always useful. In London today, we arguably have enough urban fabric as we will ever need, it just needs pruning. This is demonstrated by the fact that we didn’t even need to ‘build’ a brand new NHS Nightingale hospital from scratch, we had a huge convention centre to convert into a hospital, and there are numerous other convention centres in London, not that there are any trade shows at the moment. If demand for new buildings go down, and it WILL go down, there is no argument about it, then the price of property, like oil, falls because supply exceeds demand. New and even existing buildings fail to be useful anymore, as we have all shown during the lockdown. The sun has set on the property boom, and will only see contraction in the future. A lot of people simply did not need a separate building to work in, they could do with working from home, permanently. This is a development in the property sector and the wider construction industry that I will be exploring more in the future, so watch this space. For now, we should look out for the spice of the foreseeable future.