This week has been more than a little turbulent for the PM. On the downside, there have been allegations of illegal Christmas ‘gatherings’ last year at No 10 plus he has re-introduced despair-inducing Covid-19 restrictions. On the upside, he announced the arrival of his seventh child. It is hardly surprising therefore, that Boris is looking even more dishevelled than usual. Whilst he may be able to take a few paternity days off, The Weekly has continued to condense the rest of this week's news into five quick-fire questions. Good luck!

Questions

1. JLL released their Premium Office Rent Tracker this week, comparing ‘all-in’ occupancy costs for premium office buildings across the world. JLL’s PORT comprises all the key elements of occupancy costs - net effective rents, service charges and business rates (or a country’s equivalent). According to them, the direction of occupancy costs has been mixed during 2021. Notably, New York’s Midtown office costs have increased to now tie with Hong Kong-Central as the world’s two most expensive office markets. Elsewhere, Beijing’s Financial Street and London’s West End (third and fourth respectively) have witnessed slight rental declines over the last 12 months. So here is the question: A ‘premium office’ in London’s West End will cost an occupier all-in: £135, £145, £155, £165,175 or £185 per sq. ft per annum?

2. As restrictions tighten once again, the prospect of a trip to the Alps to enjoy some mountain air or ski slope action is becoming less and less likely. It was rather apt then that Savills’ Ski Report 2021/22 dropped into The Weekly’s inbox this week. The report covered the eye-watering prices for global ski property, with Aspen (USA) topping the Ski Prime Price League with an average price of €29,500 per square metre. The report also covers increased participation in winter sports in China, where there are currently a total of 770 ski areas, with twenty-eight new areas opening during the 2019/20 season alone. There are reportedly thirteen million skiers in China now, the third highest total of any country. Which two counties have more? Austria, France, Germany, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, USA or somewhere else?

3. This afternoon Lewis Hamilton will line up against Max Verstappen in Abu Dhabi for the highly anticipated conclusion to the 2021 Formula 1 season. After twenty-one races, the two drivers are locked on exactly the same number of points, the first time that’s happened in forty-seven years. There is also no love lost between the two of them! Lewis currently holds the record for the most amount of Grand Prix wins, with 103 race victories. However, he doesn’t hold every F1 record. In 2020, Kimi Raikkonen became the most experienced driver ever, breaking the record for the most miles driven in Formula 1. What is the total distance he has travelled in Grand Prixs? Is it 22,099, 32,099, 42,099 or 52,099 miles?

4. This week, more than forty camels were disqualified from Saudi Arabi’s beauty pageant, the biggest camel festival in the world. The contest is a highlight of the King Abdulaziz Camel Festival, with a cool £45m in prize money at stake! Judges decide the winner at the end of the week based on the shape of the camel’s head, neck, humps, dress and posture. Do you know why the camels were disqualified? Was it because their hair had been dyed, they were wearing high-heel shoes or they had had cosmetic surgery?

5. A train fanatic, Simon George, unveiled Britain’s largest model railway this week, completing a scale-model of 1.5 miles of the Calder Valley line in West Yorkshire. Mr George said the model depicts the railway in the 1980s, down to the smallest details of passing bridges, electricity boxes and even litter. The model has taken him eight years to complete, not to mention £250,000! However, it has come to light that he originally hid the model from his girlfriend, which he built in the basement of a mill. Do you know what he told her he was doing in the mill’s basement instead? Maintaining a wine cellar, repairing and running on a second-hand Peloton treadmill or growing a new strain of marijuana?

Answers

According to JLL, premium office occupancy costs for London’s West End are £145 per sq. ft. This compares to New York’s Midtown and Hong Kong Central where occupancy costs have risen to a giddy £198 per sq. ft.
Germany and the USA.
52,099 miles. That is more than twice the circumference of the Earth (24,901 miles)!
The camels were judged to have had botox, filler and facelift treatments prior to the competition!
Mr George let his girlfriend believe that he was a wine merchant as ‘that sounded cooler than building a model railway.’