Real Estate Trends
The outgoing global chair of the ULI has urged the real estate industry to collaborate rather than compete in the battle to decarbonize and be more proactive over information and knowledge-sharing, particularly to investors who are less well-capitalized. Peter Ballon, who is stepping down as global chair in July, told delegates at the ULI Europe conference in Madrid in June: “We want everybody to figure [decarbonization] out. This is not where we want to compete.
The second half of 2020 through to the following year was probably the busiest investment period in the two decades at Brookfield in the Asia Pacific region, according to the investment management firm managing partner and chief investment officer Lowell Baron. Baron spoke at a fireside chat session at the 2023 ULI Asia Pacific Summit opposite moderator Radha Dhir, JLL’s CEO and country head for India.
ULI Asia Pacific Young Leaders hosted a forum on housing attainability in May with a focus on Australia, China, and Singapore. The event started with a short presentation by Ken Rhee, Senior Director of ULI China and the primary author of the newly released 2023 ULI Asia Pacific Home Attainability Index.
Participants in a recent ULI webinar highlighted a new research report, Bridging the Occupier Landlord Gap for the Future of Workspace, which analyzes how changing occupier behavior and broader macroeconomic trends are affecting the demand for office space.
ULI is pulling together industry leaders from across the United States and Canada to advance the analysis of transition risk, which refers to the business risks associated with climate change and the transition to a low-carbon economy. The Carbon Risk Real Estate Monitor (CRREM), ULI, and the Lawrence Berkeley National Lab are partnering to create more granular curves for the U.S. and Canada.
The senior housing occupancy rate increased 0.3 percentage points from 82.9 percent in the fourth quarter of 2022 to 83.2 percent in the first quarter of 2023, according to data from NIC MAP Vision released by the National Investment Center for Seniors Housing & Care. The occupancy rate has increased 5.4 percentage points overall from a pandemic low of 77.8 percent in the second quarter of 2021 but remained 4.0 percentage points below the pre-pandemic high of 87.2 percent in the first quarter of 2020.
Asia Pacific asset owners are just beginning to grapple with decarbonization and how to factor transition and climate risks into their valuations; even so, some markets and investors are already ahead of the pack. This topic was discussed as part of a recent ULI Asia Pacific webinar, part of a series looking at decarbonization.
AFIRE, the association for international real estate investors focused on commercial property in the United States, has released its AFIRE International Investor Survey: Q1 2023 Pulse Report, underwritten by Holland Partner Group. U.S. market shows stability as a preferred global destination for investment with allocations up 6 percent from 2022, relative to a 5 percent decline in European investment.
Never underestimate the power of showing up. That’s one of the most important lessons I learned through my participation in the ULI Atlanta Young Leaders Group.
The ULI/Allen Matkins Capital Markets Roundtable, now in its eighth year, brings together investors, developers, lenders, managers, and intermediaries to share insights and perspectives on the current and future outlook for real estate capital markets. topics discussed included which sectors of the market are strong, which should be avoided; and what the thoughts and strategies of some major players in real estate financing and investing are for the coming year.
When Urban Landlast spoke to New York City landlord Leslie Himmel of Himmel + Meringoff Properties in March, vacancy within the nation’s largest office market was hovering just below 10 percent. While that still registers below the market’s peak of 11.7 percent in 2010, according to Moody’s, that rate has continued to drift upwards since March. Urban Landrecently sat down with Himmel for a lively discussion about doing business in a recessionary market amid rising interest rates, and her ongoing search for what she calls “brave money.”
Haven Realty Capital and institutional investors advised by J.P. Morgan Global Alternatives have formed a programmatic joint venture to acquire and develop more than $1 billion in new build-to-rent communities throughout the United States. The joint venture comes at a time when new for-sale housing starts have fallen to a two-year low.
Real estate economists offered a less optimistic forecast of the near-term U.S. real estate and economic environment compared with six months ago, downgrading predictions for a wide range of economic, capital market, and real estate variables. Some of the biggest changes to forecasts included 2023 gross domestic product, job growth, and private real estate returns, according to the Fall 2022 ULI Real Estate Economic Forecast.
Two of Asia’s leading entrepreneurs gave real estate investors a glimpse into the worlds of Web 3.0 and deep tech at the ULI Asia Pacific Summit.
The U.S. housing affordability crisis has both sharpened and spread significantly in the last decade: once largely confined to the coasts and the Southwest, it now extends to nearly every state. The number of metropolitan areas that underproduced housing rose from 100 to 169 between 2012 to 169 in 2019; nationally, underproduction nearly doubled in the same time period, from 1.65 to 3.79 million units.
Building on the 2020 pilot and 2021 update focused on the COVID-19 pandemic’s implications for housing, the 2022 edition of the index explores the attainability implications of shifts in housing demand and regional competitiveness due to demographic changes, pandemic-influenced employer and employee location decisions, and the high cost of both building and finding homes in the largest and most economically vibrant regions.
Belgium Prime Minister Alexander De Croo opened the 2022 ULI Europe Conference discussing the two crises impacting Europe: war on the European continent and the lingering global pandemic.
Developers that want to build momentum and lure users, especially for big projects, need to think beyond the walls of their buildings and instead create places that become nodes for innovation, panelists said at the 2022 ULI Spring Meeting in San Diego. Economic clusters—places anchored by companies or institutions that attract other businesses and residents—are key, said panelists.
Sponsored Content:HRP’s Chicago transformation is an environmental feat. Now they want to make sustainability an industry standard.
Investors who specialize in “deconverting” condo properties back into rentals are finding opportunities. But the deals take patience and fortitude.
A new report by ULI and Heitman, a global real estate investment management firm, indicates that environmental change is prompting the migration of people and businesses, movements that may trigger significant shifts in demand for real estate. Just as investors are being forced to recognize and price the physical risks associated with climate change—wildfires, hurricanes, excessive heat—they need to integrate climate migration risk into their underwriting models.
Former ULI Global Chairman Owen Thomas, CEO of Boston Properties, joined Matt Slepin, founder and managing partner of Terra Search and a ULI Foundation Governor, for a recent episode of Leading Voices in Real Estate. Thomas discussed his commitment to the industry in key leadership positions, including serving as the immediate past Global Chair of the Urban Land Institute and his significant contribution to ULI’s Net Zero Imperative Initiative working to reduce our industry’s carbon footprint.
Despite a forecast for higher inflation and rising interest rates, experts continue to have a favorable view on returns and performance for commercial real estate. However, the high tide of the improving economy is not raising all boats to the same level. There remains a clear bifurcation across and within property sectors.
Khoo Teng Chye, the new chair of ULI Asia Pacific, began his three-year term in July, succeeding Nicholas Brooke, chairman of Professional Property Services in Hong Kong. An urban planner based in Singapore, Khoo teaches at the Faculty of Engineering and the School of Design and Environment at the National University of Singapore. Previously, he was executive director of Singapore’s Centre for Liveable Cities and chief executive officer of PUB, Singapore’s National Water Agency.
Renters are now the majority in more than 100 U.S. suburbs that were previously homeowner territory 10 years ago, according to an analysis of U.S. Census Bureau data by Yardi’s RentCafé. Another 57 suburbs are expected to follow suit in the next five years, with many of these suburbs belonging to the Miami, Washington, D.C., and Los Angeles metro areas.
In Furthering Fair Housing: Prospects for Racial Justice in America’s Neighborhoods(2021, Temple University Press), influential housing thought leaders delve into the history of the fair housing and community development movements that have worked to improve housing opportunity for nonwhite households and provide perspectives on potential pathways forward.
The Dodge Momentum Index fell to 155.8 in July, a 6 percent decline from the revised June reading of 164.9. The index, issued by Dodge Data and Analytics, is a monthly measure of the initial report for nonresidential building projects in planning, which has been shown to lead construction spending for nonresidential buildings by a full year. The two components of the index fell in July—commercial planning by 3 percent and institutional planning by 9 percent.
Adapting to and mitigating the impacts of climate change have remained top priorities in Southeast Florida, even as the COVID-19 pandemic has tested other aspects of community resilience, said public-sector leaders participating in a recent ULI webinar hosted by ULI Southeast Florida/Caribbean.
ULI MEMBER–ONLY CONTENT: An excerpt from Building Small: A Toolkit for Real Estate Entrepreneurs, Civic Leaders, and Great Communities.
Members Only
The COVID-19 pandemic has challenged us all to rethink everything we thought we knew about productivity and the workplace. As we have learned, the answers are far from straightforward, but they are nevertheless emerging. During a 2021 ULI Virtual Spring Meeting session, real estate experts explored how employees’ preferences and performance are leading to a suite of workplaces—a “multiverse of work” in which homes, corporate offices, and various other locations will combine to enable a high-performing workforce.
