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Real estate market participants are in the midst of a “Great Reset” when it comes to adjusting views related to pricing, risk, and return expectations in an environment marked by higher interest rates and slower economic growth. The need to align thinking and strategies to fit current market dynamics is one of the key themes in the 2024 Emerging Trends in Real Estateforecast for the United States and Canada.

A report released by Philadelphia’s Center City District (CCD) in October 2023 tracks the recovery of twenty-six of the largest downtowns in the United States, exploring four key variables that impact recovery.

Experts speaking in December at a panel discussion at the COP28 climate summit in Dubai pointed to two ways in which the industry is already improving its environmental performance: first, by renovating more, and second, by using building materials with more recycled content.

For more than four decades, the Urban Land Institute has identified excellence in real estate and land use through awards that highlight projects and people. All these programs rely on the contributions of ULI members who donate their time and expertise as jurors and, often, cover the cost of their travel to support the awards.

Commercial real estate already faces many challenges because of an unprecedented rise in interest rates, tightening credit capacity, uncertainty in the office market, a $2.6 trillion wave of maturing debt over the next four years, and overall economic anxiety. Adding to this complexity, financial regulators are pushing for a significant increase in capital requirements—by as much as 20 percent—for the nation’s largest banks via the Basel III “endgame.”

Each year since 2009, ULI Greenprint members have reported their asset-level operational energy, water, waste, and carbon performance data to be included in the State of Greenreport. For the first time this year, ULI Greenprint piloted the voluntary submission of embodied carbon data from recent development projects to State of Green, Volume 14. This data is an important step in encouraging real estate to measure and reduce its embodied carbon emissions as the industry progresses toward net zero.

ULI’s new report shares promising examples of efforts to reconnect communities divided by highway infrastructure.

Paris mayor Anne Hidalgo, known for reinventing Paris as a 15-minute city, to receive the prestigious ULI Prize for Visionaries in Urban Development.

The ULI Terwilliger Center for Housing has announced two winners for the 2023 Jack Kemp Excellence in Affordable and Workforce Housing Award and four winners for the 2023 Terwilliger Center Award for Innovation in Attainable Housing.

A $1 million gift from Alex J. Rose, executive vice president for Continental Development Corporation, will help the ULI Foundation establish a $7.5 million endowment to provide long-term funding for its advisory services program, which assembles panels of volunteer ULI members to provide expert advice and recommendations to communities facing land use challenges.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has estimated that the industry needs to increase the number of renovations by a factor of 5 to 10 to reduce the amount of carbon being emitted from new construction.

Regulatory environment among the barriers to more adoption of modular construction techniques in Europe.

The transition to net zero will usher in tremendous potential for transformation within economic, environmental, and social realms. These shifts have the potential to generate significant wealth, improve health, and bolster climate resilience. If these changes are managed carefully, decarbonization can help dismantle social inequalities by prioritizing the needs, experiences, and opportunities of marginalized households. The goal is to ensure everyone benefits from efficient, cost-effective, and healthy buildings and energy systems, access to economic growth, and a regenerative economy.

At a recent meeting in Baltimore about talent development, a CFO of a major real estate investment trust said, “I have plenty of folks with grit and smarts who can grind through any problem in real estate. What I am lacking is folks who can lead.” How can the industry develop those kinds of leaders?

Great uncertainty remains about how companies and their employees will use office buildings in the future. To examine this important topic, ULI and The Instant Group partnered on a research project in Spring 2023 to assess how changing occupier behavior and broader macrotrends are influencing demand for workspace.

Sponsored Post:There is an explosion of AI tech across all sectors. Marketing, tech, and equities trading have been using algorithms for a long time. AI is impacting these sectors already. Real estate has been famously resistant to technology. Could AI change that?

Scheduled to break ground next year, CMNTY Culture Campus will be a mixed-use music industry hub in the heart of Hollywood. The project is set to transform the corner of Sunset Boulevard and Highland Avenue with creative offices, recording studios, public event venues and retail spaces.

The 2023 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP28) is here, and with buildings accounting for 40 percent of global carbon emissions, urban development is a pertinent topic at the United Arab Emirates-hosted conference. COP28 offers a platform for the industry to redefine its contribution to a climate-conscious world, and it provides insight into how to strike a balance between immediate profitability and enduring environmental stewardship.

In a market accustomed to abundant supplies of cheap debt, the real estate landscape in the Asia Pacific region is undergoing a significant transformation following the series of rapid interest rate hikes initiated by the U.S. Federal Reserve since mid-2022, according to the 18th edition of the Emerging Trends in Real Estate® Asia Pacific 2024. In the absence of asset revaluations, far fewer deals are now able to deliver accretive returns, prompting large global investors to retreat to the sidelines as they wait for markets to reset

10 structures showcase the lightweight, carbon-sequestering power of mass timber.

At the Urban Land Institute’s Building Healthy Places Forum during the Fall 2023 Meeting, community leaders and project stakeholders discussed the success at Jordan Downs and other projects transforming the community.

ULI Boston/New England and other local partners of the CRE/DEI Collaborative—Builders of Color Coalition, CoreNet New England, CREW Boston, NAIOP Massachusetts, and all five divisions of the Greater Boston Real Estate Board as well as the Real Estate Executive Council (the national trade association for commercial real estate professionals of color)—recently gathered for the annual Boston CRE Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Summit to continue to share insights and strategies on how to advance DEI within commercial real estate meaningfully.

According to the latest Emerging Trends in Real Estate® Europe report from PwC and ULI, 75 percent of real estate leaders agree current valuations “do not accurately reflect” all the challenges and opportunities in real estate, as a wedge continues to be driven between market price expectations and book valuations.

For the past 75 years, ULI’s Advisory Services Program has paired the brightest minds in real estate with the most challenging problems facing our cities. We thank all who volunteered their skills, time, and energy to create a more authentic blueprint for change, identified communities facing urban development and land use challenges, and supported panels through philanthropic giving. Your commitment and dedication have delivered the holistic, creative solutions cities need today. Thank you for being a part of this transformative journey. Together, we shape the future of our cities.

At the 2023 ULI Fall Meeting in Los Angeles (L.A.), attendees had the opportunity to tour Hollywood Park in Inglewood California, a 298-acre location of sports, entertainment, parks, retail, and residential space, which includes the famous SoFi Stadium. Hollywood Park, formerly Hollywood Park Racetrack, is currently being converted into a mixed-use master-planned community highlighting the architectural and lifestyle of Southern California

ULI MEMBER-ONLY CONTENT: According to the latest ULI Real Estate Economic Forecast, investors are expected to buy just $312 billion in commercial real estate in 2023. That’s a fraction of the volume of sales in 2021 and $100 billion less than expected in the spring forecast just six months ago.

When it comes to reducing embodied carbon emissions in the real estate sector, developers can’t do it on their own: they must partner with outside stakeholders to influence elements over which they don’t have direct control, including supply chain materials manufacturers.

Many office property owners are heading for the exits amid weaker demand and looming debt maturities, while opportunistic private equity groups are leaning in to capture what could be once-in-a-generation buying opportunities.

As office vacancies continue to grow, and with declining confidence in Class B & C buildings in multiple markets across North America, Gensler has been supporting over a dozen cities and over 100 different owners to determine what can be done to save their buildings and save our city cores.

A futurist discussed the potential integrating artificial intelligence into the commercial real estate industry in a general session at the 2023 ULI Fall Meeting in Los Angeles.