Many countries in Asia have successfully mitigated the spread of COVID-19 through a range of strategies that include universal mask use, testing, sophisticated technology for contact tracing, and strict government quarantine and cleaning protocols, according to leading real estate professionals participating in a recent ULI webinar. The participants described impacts on their real estate businesses, and how the real estate industry has been enlisted in the fight against the coronavirus.

Real estate investment in the Asia Pacific region has been on a downward trend since 2019, and market uncertainty brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated the situation, said speakers at a recent ULI Singapore event held virtually.

Insights into working with tenants and lenders to weather the coronavirus crisis were shared by a diverse group of real estate professionals—a niche developer and investor specializing in space for life science companies, a mixed-use developer focused primarily on downtown revitalization and development, an affordable housing developer, and a real estate debt and equity adviser—during an April 14 webinar hosted by ULI’s Center for Capital Markets and Real Estate.

A timely report by ULI Europe sets out the potential triggers for the required restructuring of Europe’s retail real estate sector.

With the challenges of technology, mobility, sustainability, and social inclusion, the public and private sectors are working together successfully to build thriving places. Reinventing underused urban spaces to prioritize people is the way. A panel at ULI Europe’s 2020 conference in Amsterdam, moderated by Marilyn Jordan Taylor, professor of architecture and urban design at the University of Pennsylvania and a former ULI global chair, discussed four successful projects around the globe.

Interest rates remain low and real estate prices are hitting record highs in many countries while global economic growth is slowing. At the ULI Europe Conference earlier this month in Amsterdam, experts shared their takes on the global economic outlook and what developers and investors should watch for.

With tax rules clarified, will the program deliver the promise of increasing development in underserved areas?

There is no end in sight for the long-lived U.S. economic and real estate market expansion, according to leading real estate economists. These projections are based on a special year-end version of the “ULI Real Estate Economic Forecast,” prepared by the ULI Center for Capital Markets and Real Estate. The forecast is based on a survey completed in December by 27 economists/analysts at 24 leading real estate organizations.

Some of the best minds in commercial real estate seemed a lot less worried at the 26th annual ULI/McCoy Symposium on Real Estate Finance, held in December in New York City. Participants’ top message: investors keep pouring their money into office towers, apartment buildings, and other real estate in the United States despite high prices, worries that the U.S. economy could fall into a recession, and the uncertainty that accompanies a presidential election year.

Sam Chandan, associate dean of New York University’s Schack Institute of Real Estate and host of the Real Estate Hour on SiriusXM Radio presented his economic forecast for 2020 at a ULI New York event in November.