Twelve outstanding real estate development projects from across the Asia Pacific region have been selected as winners of the 2021 ULI Asia Pacific Awards for Excellence, which is widely recognized as one of the real estate industry’s most prestigious award programs. A ceremony honoring the winners took place at the 2021 ULI Asia Pacific Summit.

Total U.S. construction starts fell 2 percent in April to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $853.5 billion, according to Dodge Data & Analytics. Single-family construction posted a sizable decline following months of strong activity, while nonresidential building and nonbuilding starts both gained.

Real estate economists predict markedly improved U.S. economic and property market conditions over the next three years, 2021 to 2023, compared with the forecast of six months ago, according to the spring ULI Real Estate Economic Forecast.

The ULI Greenprint Center for Building Performance revealed in May that six new real estate leaders, representing more than 1,700 buildings, have announced plans to reduce the operational carbon emissions of their collective portfolio under operational control to net zero by the year 2050. This is in addition to 11 ULI Greenprint members that already publicly aligned with this goal last fall.

Though developers are finding strong demand for single-family-rental housing, they are facing challenges both from communities unfamiliar with the product and from high costs for land and construction.

Speaking at the 2021 ULI Housing Opportunity Conference, Ali Wolf, chief economist with Zonda, formerly Meyers Research, said that the homebuilding industry has been a bright spot in the U.S. economy over the last year. But rising mortgage rates and limited inventory are among the issues that may hamper that growth in 2021.

As part of the first Net Zero Buildings Week this week, ULI, the New Buildings Institute (NBI), and other organizations focused on improving the built environment are calling on partners and members to share their thought leadership on net zero.

Technology is paving the way for a segment of investors, many of whom are “digital natives,” to explore real estate as an additional part of their investment portfolio and participate financially in the real estate sector like never before, said panelists speaking at the 2021 ULI Singapore Annual Conference, held both virtually and in person in early March.

ULI has launched a new report, Zooming in on the “S” in ESG: A Road Map for Social Value in Real Estate, to guide the industry on incorporating social value into corporate strategy, business practices, and even investment theory.

Eighty-four professionals in real estate development, planning, design, engineering, finance, and health care from around the globe have been selected to participate in the fourth cohort of the ULI Health Leaders Network. Due to the unique circumstances resulting from the pandemic that have required this cohort to be virtual, program administrators have increased the number of health leaders accepted for Cohort 4, which has been split into two subcohorts for programming.