Property Types

ULI Property Types provides insights into challenges, opportunities, and innovations specific to each property type, supporting developers, investors, planners, and policymakers in making informed decisions and responding to dynamic market conditions. It organizes and showcases content on the major real estate classifications — including hotels and resorts, industrial, mixed-use, multifamily, office, residential, and retail — to help industry professionals understand how different segments perform and evolve.
Hotels and Resorts
Holiday travelers may notice that airport-connected hotels are incorporating more regional touches, from façade to dining. Here are five examples that offer the ultimate luxury, a short walk from guest room to terminal.
The hotel industry in the United States faces complex challenges in 2025, according to Jan Freitag, national director of hospitality analytics for the CoStar Group. During the “State of the U.S. Hotel Industry” presentation at the ULI 2025 Spring Meeting in Denver, Colorado, Freitag highlighted the challenges facing the hotel business amid macroeconomic uncertainty.
Once a sprawling expanse of uncharted land, Las Vegas, Nevada, has evolved into the entertainment capital of the world, a gaming super-hub, and a premier destination for sports. This remarkable transformation didn’t happen overnight; it stemmed from decades of strategic planning, investment, and visionary zoning recommendations.
Industrial
In 2025, the country’s industrial market is experiencing a rebalancing in the wake of surging demand and record new supply that marked the early pandemic years. New opportunities in fast-growing markets are emerging, and demand drivers are shifting. New space demand will grow the most, especially for small-bay industrial assets, according to a Q3 2025 report from the business advisory and accounting firm Plante Moran.
Birmingham’s Urban Supply hints at what the next chapter of downtown life could look like. Once-quiet brick warehouses are being reimagined into patios, storefronts, and gathering spaces along a new pedestrian alley.
What trends are shaping the future of the industrial sector? Four experts from ULI’s Industrial and Office Park Development Council talk about the industrial submarkets and property types that offer the greatest opportunities, challenges developers face in bringing new projects to market, ways artificial intelligence and emerging technologies are reshaping the sector, tenant priorities, and other key trends.

Mixed-Use
According to a newly released NAHB survey, buyers in 2013 are looking for bigger homes again, but also want energy-efficiency and plenty of storage.
Single-family housing starts are expected to rise 22 percent in 2013, according to a report from the NAHB’s convention in Las Vegas. “Housing is finally doing its job in leading the economy out of recession,” said David Crowe, NAHB’s chief economist.
An aerotropolis around Denver International Airport would build on the airport’s access to the world.
Multifamily
Austin-based Kasita wants to hit the developer market with small, precision-built turnkey homes.
Implementing strategies at the building, development, and community levels can preserve functionality despite extreme weather.
The population of urban neighborhoods in many metropolitan areas is growing as quickly or nearly as quickly as that of suburban neighborhoods, reflecting ongoing consumer demand—particularly among younger households—for walkable living environments that are convenient to jobs, transit, and urban amenities, according to new research published by ULI and RCLCO.
Office
Delegates at ULI Japan’s recent Spring Conference, held in Tokyo, heard from a number of landlords operating a number of different models for office occupation about how their operations worked and their thoughts on the future.
Central Hong Kong and London’s West End topped the latest list of prime office occupancy costs, according to CBRE Research’s latest annual Global Prime Office Occupancy Costsreport. “The global top ten list reflects the ongoing strength of global gateway cities in attracting and maintaining a successful occupier base,” said Richard Barkham, global chief economist at CBRE.
As job growth in the professional services sector has increased substantially over the past several years, office real estate investment trusts (REITs) have benefited from strong leasing fundamentals. However, more office construction and oversupply concentrated in major metro areas such as New York City, Houston, and Washington, D.C., continue to concern those in the market. Plus, interest rate survey data from Trepp.
Residental
The low-income housing tax credit (LIHTC) has helped house millions, and it remains a vital driver of development. The 30-year track record of the LIHTC offers compelling evidence that affordable housing is good business, a stable asset class, and a strong driver of economic activity and neighborhood improvement.
As the Denver metropolitan area has topped 3 million residents, potentially accelerating toward 4 million, a sustainable land use template for future mobility and economic, social, and environmental health is emerging within the framework of the 122-mile (196 km) FasTracks rail and bus rapid transit network, which includes expansion with five new transit lines this year. A ULI Colorado event in early November attracted participants from Colorado and beyond to tour various transit-oriented development sites and hear about lessons learned and future trends.
A new report from the ULI Terwilliger Center says that U.S. suburban housing markets are well positioned to remain preferred places to live and work over the coming decades, even as urban cores and downtown neighborhoods continue to attract new residents.
Retail
The National Retail Federation predicts a record-breaking 2025 holiday season, with U.S. sales for November and December projected to grow between 3.7 percent and 4.2 percent—pushing total holiday sales past $1 trillion for the first time. Yet there also are signs that consumers are nervous; that mood, plus accounting for inflation, could leave holiday spending relatively flat.
From Dead Mall to Living District: Replacing the “Great Wall of Galleria” with a Connected Urban Core
For decades, civic leaders have tried to revitalize Market Street, San Francisco’s central thoroughfare, only to see their efforts founder. “I sometimes call it the great white whale of San Francisco,” says Eric Tao, managing partner at L37 Development in San Francisco and co-chair of ULI San Francisco. “Every new mayor, every new planning director, every new economic development director has chased that white whale.” This year, however, an international competition of ideas hosted and run by ULI San Francisco, with support from the ULI Foundation, generated fresh momentum for reimagining the boulevard. The competition drew 173 submissions from nine countries and sparked new conversations about the future of downtown San Francisco.