- The Luxury Playbook Weekly Round-up
- Posts
- Weekly Round-up
Agenda
Spotlight
Fine Assets
Real Estate
Equities
Why Hospitality Is The Most Undervalued Asset Class In Real Estate
For decades, hospitality investments — especially hotels — have carried a reputation for being among the most complex and risky ventures, often grouped with restaurants as “high-effort” businesses. Traditional investment advice has long favored real estate classes that promise steady returns with minimal operational involvement.
A residential property could “pay you back from the couch,” while a hotel required daily oversight, skilled teams, and constant reinvention to succeed.
Yet, the perception of hospitality as “too risky” is increasingly outdated. Hotels are not just financial assets; they are lifestyle assets, capable of combining revenue potential with experiential value. Historically avoided for their operational intensity, They now combine the resilience of real estate with the upside potential of hospitality.
But the questions remain: Is classic residential real estate still the safest bet in a shifting market, or is it losing its shine? And do modern hotels truly demand unmanageable effort, or have they evolved into structured, technology-enabled investments that can outperform other asset classes?
Christie’s, Sotheby’s & Phillips Auction Sales Signal A Turning Point For The Art Market
Hong Kong’s fall evening auctions have just delivered their verdict on the art market’s health, with Christie’s, Sotheby’s, and Phillips collectively achieving approximately $136.3 million across their marquee sales in late September.
These results matter beyond the transaction totals as they set the tone for the crucial London and New York seasons ahead while providing the first meaningful read on collector confidence after a notably softer spring that produced the lowest evening totals since 2015, as ArtNews, Observer, and TheValue report.
Christie’s held their 20th/21st Century Evening Sale on September 26, followed by Phillips’ Modern & Contemporary Evening on September 27, and Sotheby’s Modern & Contemporary Evening on September 28.
This concentrated sequence created an immediate pressure test for the market, revealing which categories command serious bidding and which remain vulnerable to estimate discipline failures.
California’s 2025 Vintage May Become One Of The Hardest Bottles To Buy
California’s 2025 harvest has produced one of the state’s smallest case outputs in years, with industry forecasts pointing toward a crush under 2.5 million tons, well below 2024’s already diminished 2.92 million tons, which was itself the smallest since 2004.
The reduction stems not just from vineyard removals and mothballed acreage, but from an uncomfortable reality:
Estimates suggest another 100,000 to 400,000 tons of grapes may be left unpicked because demand simply isn’t there, as reported by the San Francisco Chronicle and Wine-Searcher.
The quality signals appear strong with cooler summer temperatures, long hang times and clean fruit, yet case volumes remain constrained by market-driven under-harvesting and vineyard cutbacks.
Decanter’s reports describe the growing conditions favorably, but this creates a troubling paradox for wine investors:
Exceptional quality means little if the scarcity driving prices stems from demand weakness rather than natural limitation. The bifurcated market emerging from this vintage threatens to concentrate speculative interest in trophy Napa and Sonoma labels while commodity wines remain oversupplied, creating conditions ripe for pricing distortions.
The Patek & Tiffany Collab That Manipulated Collectors Into Investors Overnight
When Patek Philippe unveiled the Nautilus 5711/1A-018 in Tiffany Blue during December 2021, the watch world experienced what seemed like a watershed moment.
The first piece sold for $6.5 million at Phillips New York, nearly 124 times its $52,635 retail price, sending shockwaves through collector circles and investment forums alike. Celebrity sightings followed immediately, with Jay-Z wearing his in December 2021 and LeBron James at Le Mans in June 2023,amplifying what was already becoming a speculative frenzy.
For watch investors, the Tiffany Nautilus appeared to validate the thesis that modern steel sport watches had become legitimate alternative assets.
What actually emerged was something more troubling: a cautionary tale about how scarcity, celebrity endorsement, and auction theater can create unsustainable valuations that mislead an entire generation of collectors about what constitutes sound watch investment.
New Housing Support Measures Set to Boost Greece’s Real Estate Market
Greece has launched its most ambitious housing support program in decades, committing €1 billion to directly subsidize nearly 948,000 renters while implementing comprehensive tax incentives for property investors.
These measures represent more than domestic policy adjustments, signaling Greece’s strategic positioning to compete with Portugal, Spain, and Italy for European real estate investment capital.
The timing is deliberate, coming as residential property prices climbed 6.19% year-over-year in Q1 2025 and construction activity surged 31.8% in 2024. For real estate investors, these reforms could fundamentally alter Greece’s investment market.
Wall Street Is Suddenly Paying Attention To Emerging Markets
Emerging markets have stormed back into investor consciousness in 2025 after years of underperformance that left many questioning whether the asset class deserved portfolio allocation at all.
A weaker U.S. dollar, global rate-cut expectations, and strong fund inflows have pushed EM equities, currencies, and debt sharply higher, with Reuters and EPFR data showing capital flowing into these markets at rates not seen since the pre-pandemic era.
The performance gap that widened steadily in favor of developed markets through much of the 2010s and early 2020s has suddenly reversed.
As Reuters commentary notes: “Emerging market assets have been unexpected winners this year.”
At The Luxury Playbook, we don’t follow the market—we analyze it, decode it, and stay ahead of it.”