9 https://player.vimeo.com/vid- eo/300098186?color=ffe400&title=0&by- line=0&portrait=0 What Is a Megacity? A megacity is an urban area with a total pop- ulation of 10 million or more people. There are 47 megacities today. Thirty of the world’s megacities are in Asia. China, with a population of 1.42 billion, has 15 megacities, and India, with its population of 1.3 billion, has six. The three largest megacities— with populations of over 30 million—are also in Asia. Tokyo, the largest megacity in the world, has a population of 38 million, while Shanghai has 34 million and Jakarta has 32 million. The United States has two megacities—New York and Los Angeles. The other megacity in North America is Mexico City, with a pop- ulation of 21 million. Europe also has three megacities (or four if you count Istanbul). North America, Europe, and the Common- wealth combined have six megacities, compared to Asia’s thirty. Clearly, it’s time to think about what the explosive growth in Asian and Southern Hemi- sphere megacities means in terms of competi- tion for resources, including global capital for real estate and infrastructure investment. Globalization = Urbanization In 1950, there were 83 cities with popula- tions exceeding one million. New York City was the only urban area in the world with a popu- lation of over 10 million—making it the first megacity. By the end of the 20th century, 47% of the global population lived in cities, as compared to 3% in 1800. Today, an estimated 50% live in urban areas, and the percentage is still growing. The UN forecasts that today’s urban population will increase from approximately 3.5 billion to nearly 5 billion by 2030. Some predict that the proportion of the global population living in cities is headed toward as much as 80%. In short, globalization is turning out to be synonymous with urbanization—much of it in association with rapid growth and urbanization in Asia and the emerging markets of the South- ern Hemisphere. I chose megacities as the theme for the Third Quarter 2018 Wrap Up as a logical follow-on to our Second Quarter 2018 Wrap Up theme—The Rise of the Asian Consumer. I wanted to explore what increased urbanization means for our cul- ture, geopolitics, and financial markets. This includes taking a look at global real estate companies. For many decades, investors have followed real estate companies and real estate investment trusts (REITs) in the Unit- ed States and Europe. However, the steady adoption of the REIT model globally and the explosive growth of publicly traded real estate companies and REITs in Asia are opening up a new area of investment. The growth of cities and the global middle class means significant demand for real estate and related infrastructure investment. How will the flow of global capi- tal into real estate markets express itself in the global equity markets? Our Third Quarter 2018 Wrap Up comes with audios and this written discussion on a dedicated web presentation. This includes tables of megacities and publicly traded global real estate companies listed and traded on the U.S. exchanges for your review. Our goal is to ensure that you are aware of megacities and urbanization as a primary trend—one with consequences for culture, health, environment, and investment for the foreseeable future. This includes considering how consolidation of the global population into dense living areas where residents are more dependent on centralized systems fits into an integrated framework of global governance and the centralization of global control. “The world is a book and those who do not travel read only one page.” –Saint Augustine