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Though driverless vehicles are expected to be commercially available in the next few years, the shift to their use is likely to occur gradually and in phases over several decades, panelists said at ULI’s Spring Meeting in Detroit. That long process will allow vehicles to be tested and improved. It also will enable the development of urban infrastructure—such as smart roads and traffic management systems that communicate continuously with many vehicles at once—that would make them work better, said panelists.

With more than $3.6 billion in investment taking place in its downtown alone, Indianapolis has been on the radar of many out-of-state investors. At a recent ULI Indiana event, panelists described the investment appeal of secondary cities.

Berlin’s landmark luxury shopping center is being refreshed at a price in the hundreds of millions and with Rem Koolhaas at the helm.

A glut of liquidity in local capital markets is making life difficult for domestic and foreign investors alike.

How can the real estate industry do a better job of meeting the needs of middle-income renters and buyers?

If smart cities are to serve their populations, the human element must remain crucial for their designers and developers, attendees at the 2018 ULI Asia Pacific Summit were told. A panel of developers, designers, and planners mulled over the development of the smart city in Asia during the summit, held in Hong Kong.

W. Edward “Ed” Walter, a widely renowned real estate industry leader and most recently the Steers Chair in Real Estate at Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business, is the Institute’s new global chief executive officer. Walter brings to ULI more than 35 years of management experience in the real estate profession across a variety of disciplines including hotels, multifamily, and land development, with a strong emphasis on capital markets and investments.

Disruptive technology—and the need to embrace it—will continue to influence office and retail tenants, as well as developers, panelists said at the ULI U.K. Annual Conference, held in early June in London.

The Dodge Momentum Index eked out a small gain in May, moving 1.8 percent higher to 167.8 (2,000=100) from the revised April reading of 164.9. May’s gain was the result of a 4.7 percent increase by the commercial component of the Momentum Index, while the institutional component fell 2.4 percent.

Growing cities such as Hong Kong are at the epicenter of what Richard Florida has dubbed “the new urban crisis,” with the city’s success sending house prices soaring out of reach of the average resident. The author and urbanist, who is director of cities at the Martin Prosperity Institute at the University of Toronto, spoke at the 2018 ULI Asia Pacific Summit in Hong Kong.