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Lisette van Doorn, Chief Executive Officer of ULI Europe, shares some of the ongoing effort to enhance the benefits for our members and make ULI more relevant on a local level across Europe.

A ULI panel of real estate and land use professionals convened in Boston last fall has identified key priorities to guide future real estate development that could be catalyzed by a proposed underground rail line linking two major transit hubs—North Station and South Station—and unifying two currently separate commuter rail systems.

Kansas City’s suburbs have fueled population growth in the metropolitan area over the last 70 years, a post–World War II pattern common across most large cities in the United States, and it does not appear that expansion is slowing anytime soon, even as parts of Kansas City’s urban core are also enjoying a resurgence, said panelists at a recent ULI event in Overland Park, Kansas.

In February, ULI South Florida/Caribbean gathered a panel of researchers, real estate developers, and economic development agencies at the new Arts & Entertainment District—the latest neighborhood to emerge as a cultural destination for city residents.

Like many areas of the United States, California is facing a housing affordability crisis in its most populous area, and the San Francisco Bay area is ground zero, with sky-high rents and housing prices. To help address the issue, ULI San Francisco created the Housing the Bay initiative in early 2017. Through research, events, and workshops, the initiative aims to explore the underlying causes of the Bay Area’s high housing costs and inadequate housing supply and propose solutions.

Sellers of commercial real estate in today’s hypercompetitive market are focused on a number of objectives, including maximizing sales prices and ensuring that a selected buyer will close a transaction. On the other hand, prospective buyers are looking for any competitive advantage that will result in a successful acquisition. New research quantifies the effect of trusted relationships—and the price of doubt.

E-commerce has finally arrived in Singapore in a big way. Amazon has appeared on the island’s shores, joining local etailers like Zalora and RedMart, and with meal delivery apps such as Deliveroo, FoodPanda, and UberEats, restaurant-grade food can come straight to your door. Nonetheless, the pipeline for brick-and-mortar retail remains strong, with a total of 509,000 square meters (5.5 million sq ft) of retail space of projects in the pipeline.

While commercial real estate investors generally take a positive view on coworking, maintaining a balance of traditional and coworking space in a building is critical when it comes to creating long-term capital value. According to a CBRE survey, investors say that a coworking occupancy of a third of the space or less, with a qualified operator, supports a healthy capital value.

Real estate economists boosted their outlook for economic growth in March’s ULI Real Estate Economic Forecast, compared with the survey of six months ago. The expectation for stronger economic growth is accompanied by the potential for higher inflation and interest rates. The higher rates, however, are not projected to be detrimental to real estate returns: Forecasts for industrial returns are higher than in the previous survey.

Speaking at the ULI Carolinas Meeting in February, consultant Paul Doherty of The Digit Group described how 3-D printing, building information modeling, and piezoelectricity are reshaping the built environment.